László Mravik
Hungary's Pillaged Art Heritage
Part Two: The Fate of the Hatvany Collection

The Hatvanys were amongst the most prominent Jewish families in Hungary. Wealth and culture went hand in hand in this financially powerful and influential clan. Legend has it that their maternal ancestors were influential financiers in Buda in the 15th century, as usurers to King Matthias Corvinus. Shortly afterwards, they moved to Prague and Warsaw, to the lands of the Jagiellons; at the end of the 18th century some of the family resettled in Hungary. The alleged creator of the Golem, the mysterious Rabbi Loew of Prague, also belonged to this family. Paternally, they traced their ancestry to a prominent mid-18th century Great Hungarian Plain family, in and around the town of Cegléd. In the reign of the Emperor Joseph II, at the time of Germanization, being "good Jews", they acquired the name Deutsch. Like the majority of the Jews in Hungary, the Deutsches identified emotionally with the Magyars. The Sterns—a family that produced one of the most valiant soldiers of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–49, the legendary Sergeant-Major Csillag (the name was already Magyarized)—merged with the Deutsches. The Hatvanys cherished their militant traditions, several of them were of the left in the 20th century, not necessarily as activists but certainly in spirit.
The immense family fortune was founded by Ignác Deutsch, who set up businesses first in Arad, a city on the easternmost fringe of the Great Plain, and later in the rest of the country and in Budapest. Although they owned a great number of businesses, their astronomical wealth was derived mainly from sugar refining, which was truly vertically integrated. They leased and purchased enormous estates on which they grew sugar-beet, financed by their own bank (Ignác Deutsch and Sons) and they were involved in the wholesaling of sugar. Their principal refineries were in Hatvan, Sárvár and Nagysurány. The Treaty of Trianon affected the family only slightly, since their wealth was based upon refineries in the Great Plain and Transdanubia, and upon arable land. Their true home remained the Great Hungarian Plain and Budapest.
The descendants of the rabbis of yore were no longer religious. Many converted to Christianity in one form or another. A number returned to the ancient faith of their family and were looked upon as curiosities. They never denied their Jewish origins, and in the increasingly fascist atmosphere of 1930s Hungary, they expressed solidarity with poor and persecuted Jews. This much will have to suffice just a glimpse of the individuals and spirit of this great family. The full, detailed history is far more spectacular, and would deserve a volume of its own.

The dispersion and destruction of the Hatvany collections is a late event. The shrinking of most large Hungarian art collections began in the late 1920s, for financial reasons. In the Hatvanys' case, however, their financial position was unassailable, and they continued to collect up to the early 1940s, albeit at a slower rate. The heyday of their collecting was between 1905 and 1914, the golden sunset of Austria-Hungary. The results of this collecting spree survived until 1944–45.
The most famous art collection was that of Baron Ferenc Hatvany (1881–1958), himself a reputable painter. In his villa in Buda, were found outstanding Impressionists—Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas—and also 19th-century French classicists, romantics and realists: Ingres, Chasseriau, Géricault, Delacroix, Corot and Courbet. Nor was the collection short on old masters, with Solario, Tintoretto, Longhi, El Greco and Lucas Cranach the Elder deserving special mention. The most valuable items, both in price and rarity, were two objects: the fragment of a 16th-century animal carpet, and a tapestry showing a coronation scene from Brussels, made around 1500. Of Hungarian paintings, works by Bertalan Székely, Mihály Munkácsy, Károly Lotz, Pál Szinyei Merse, Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, József Rippl-Rónai, Károly Ferenczy were rightly acclaimed. Ferenc Hatvany's collection numbered some 750 items. The building, a summer house built by the great 19th century Hungarian architect, Miklós Ybl, which housed the collection, was situated on one of the lower bastions of Buda Castle and offered a marvellous panorama of the city. This elegant house was destroyed towards the end of the Second World War. For some time a playground stood on the site, where excavations are currently going on.
Baroness József Hatvany (1884–1964) owned one of the world's largest collections of china, containing the choicest products of Meissen, Vienna, Fulda, Frankenthal, Copenhagen, Derby, Sčvres and other manufacturies. The arrangement of the collection was professional, as was the acquisition policy. The collection, displayed in showcases, numbered well over 1000 items. Several gobelins, old and 19th-century paintings (Lely, Brocky), bronze statues and Jewish liturgical and other religious artworks adorned their baroque town house in Werboýczy (today Táncsics Mihály) utca, which had earlier been owned by the Counts Erdoýdy. When Beethoven visited Buda, he stayed at this house. Today, after a botched renovation, it houses the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The same building was the home of the interesting collections of Mrs József Hatvany's (Fanni Hatvany) two sons. Apart from his old masters, the core of Baron Endre Hatvany's (1892–†?) collection was made up by his oriental carpets and rugs, which, though relatively few in number (around 50), were carefully selected from 17th–18th century masterpieces, mainly from Asia Minor.
Baron Bertalan Hatvany (1900–1980), an enthusiastic Orientalist, collected from the Far East, including stone remains and ceramics. The collection was not large, but around 70–80 pieces were extraordinary, including a Parinirvana composition (the dying Buddha with his disciples). Through financing the publication of the literary journal Szép szó, he supported possibly the greatest Hungarian poet of the century, Attila József. Bertalan Hatvany published an interesting though controversial book, Ázsia lelke (The Soul of Asia) on his oriental journeys and meditations.
The third of Fanni's children, Baroness Lilly Hatvany (1890–1967), owned many Hungarian paintings and some outstanding items of furniture, but these were not widely known. Not an ambitious collector herself, she used her collection to decorate her home in Werboýczy utca.
Baron Károly Hatvany (1863–1943) was known for his first-class china collection, his prize possessions being large ornamental vases made in the Berlin factory at the time of Frederick II of Prussia. His collection of paintings included outstanding Dutch works. He was well-known as a passionate collector of weapons. After his death, his widow administered the collection for some time.
Rightly famous for his patronage of literature in the first place, Baron Lajos Hatvany (1880–1961), the friend of Thomas Mann, Karel CŠapek, Arthur Koestler, the patron of Endre Ady, Dezsoý Kosztolányi and other great Hungarian writers, owned a collection of paintings, in which works by József Rippl-Rónai were the most significant. He also owned a large number of works by artist friends.
Other members of the family collected art but listing them by name would go far beyond the purview of this paper. It is noteworthy, however, that an immense amount of art objects were accumulated in the Hatvany château in Hatvan (formerly owned by Prince Grassalkovich). Here each piece had its own owner. These objects were, however, rarely removed to the family's houses in Budapest. All these taken together constituted the largest family collection in Hungary. In quantitative terms, only the Esterházys could match the Hatvany art treasures, but by the thirties the Esterházys only owned craftwork of great worth, most of their paintings had been dispersed.

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Ferenc Hatvany packed some 160–165 pieces of his collection in 13 lockers (including the most valuable items) and deposited them at three large banks in Budapest, in the names of two of his employees. Other large works and vulnerable pieces were carefully wrapped and put in the cellar of his house, a few were handed to relatives living in safer locations. A considerable portion of the collection, however, remained in the rooms of his villa in Hunyadi János utca. This building was taken over by Nazi officers, who only admitted the Jewish Commission after much wrangling. They only found some 60 paintings and drawings worth sequestering. The SS officers would not permit the works to be removed into museums. The list is, however, highly valuable because it informs posterity that Courbet's Wrestlers and Munkácsy's Parisienne were still there at the time. This part of the collection was thus abandoned by Ferenc Hatvany to its fate, as it were. Most collectors were forced to act in this way, since the disappearance of entire collections would have aroused the unwanted curiosity of the authorities.
As several sources reveal, Mrs József Hatvany left the mainstay of her collection, the porcelain items, in the Erdoýdy-Hatvany mansion, and only the paintings and sculptures were put under lock and key by the Jewish Commission. The choicest pieces were packed in trunks and stored in more protected rooms of the palace. The situation is still not clear, as some recollect that several items were taken over to Pest and deposited in the family's bank—the Hungarian Commercial Bank—in Mérleg utca. The same applies to Bertalan Hatvany's Oriental art works. Of Lilly Hatvany's collection, only some items were sequestered by the Commission, with most of the furniture remaining in place.
A separate chapter could be written on the fate of Endre Hatvany's treasures. Several of his painings came under the protection of the Jewish Commission, but none of his carpets are even mentioned. Although after 1945 he went to great lengths to recover his lost goods and reported his losses to several authorities, he always kept silent about the rugs. Though it is only a hypothesis that he was one of the successful "treasure-hiders", no other explanation is plausible. The collection found its way to England—possibly with the connivance of Endre Hatvany. Today, most pieces of the old collection belong—true, not bona fide—to one of the most famous collectors in London, coincidentally of Hungarian origin.
Károly Hatvany's collections were sequestered by the Jewish Government Commission; his weapons collection was entrusted to the War Museum, which deposited them in a rural storehouse. His paintings and china have vanished almost without trace.
The furnishings of the château in Hatvan remained in place, with only a few pieces taken to Budapest. The local Finance Authority packed the voluminous treasure into crates and shipped them to Budapest accompanied by relatively precise and reliable inventory lists. It was only after this that German troops were stationed in the château, and nothing of great value was left behind by then.

In the spring following the liberation of Budapest, the Ministerial Committee for Displaced Art Works began to take stock of the losses. The list of works taken to the West was easy to compile because consignment lists were available, and so were the lists of sequestered items. The difficult job was to piece together what had been placed in bank vaults, that is the Soviet trophy. Neither the banks nor private individuals could give full information, the former for legal, the latter for various other reasons, one being that they were no longer alive. Some 90–95 per cent of those who deposited their treasures with banks were declared Jews. Hence the Soviet authorities that seized the bank deposits were simply continuing the "work" of the Nazis, with different tools. Despite the difficulties, a volume of lists was compiled of the damage caused by Soviet looting; but after 1948 work on this was stopped, what had been discovered was hidden at the bottom of archives, or destroyed.
That part of Ferenc Hatvany's collection which was placed in bank custody shared the fate of innumerable other treasures. This fact has never been verified item by item, although the archives of Hungarian banks and financial institutions continue to hold the necessary documents. The bulk, perhaps all, of the art works he left in his home were taken away by German officers billeted there, some presumably perished on the spot, or later, in the Mauthner and Kornfeld villas in Buda, where the Germans stored looted treasures. A small portion of his treasures was later reacquired by the Baron. He promptly smuggled them abroad, with the few exceptions that were sold at home.

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SUMMARY PREPARED BY THE MINISTRY OF RELIGION AND PUBLIC EDUCATION ON THE WORKS OF ART REMOVED FROM THE VAULTS OF BUDAPEST BANKS BY THE RED ARMY

I. List of the Banks in Question and Catalogue of the Items Deposited at These Institutions

Pesti Magyar Kereskedelmi Bank (Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest). This was where the many important documents of the 400-year-old Sárospatak College were stored, namely 124 items of old printed material, unique books, rare books and manuscripts, including the oldest register of students the College possessed. Paintings belonging to Adolf Wertheimer, a resident of Budapest, by old Hungarian masters Kupeczky, Bertalan Székely, Barabás, László Paál, Károly Ferenczy, Benczúr, Lotz, et al., and two boxes of porcelain. The paintings and other items belonging to János Horváth and Károly Veszely consisting of old Hungarian masters and tapestries. The painter Aurél Bernáth also deposited here, in two boxes, pastels by himself, documents and a list of his works. Also, 150 drawings belonging to Bertalan Neményi, Hungarian paintings: Csontváry, Gulácsy, etc.
A part of the medallion collection belonging to Sárospatak College and a large number of very valuable old and rare Hungarian books were stored at the Elsoý Hazai Takarékpénztár Részvénytársaság (First Hungarian Savings Bank Co.)
Under the name of János Horváth, several paintings, tapestries and smaller works found shelter in the steel vaults of the Magyar Általános Hitelbank (Hungarian General Credit Bank). Dr Andor Ulmann also stored his old paintings, carpets and collection of antiques at this place.
Dr Károly Veszely deposited several of his paintings, tapestries and other valuables in the vaults of the Leszámitoló és Pénzváltó Bank Rt. (Discount and Exchange Bank Co.)

II. The Circumstances Under Which the Items Were Taken into Custody and Their Current Locations, According to the Data Available.

According to the information obtained, the valuables found there were taken away from the Pesti Magyar Kereskedelmi Bank by soldiers of the Russian Front Committee in Hungary, quartered at Koýbánya, Állomás u. 1.
The head of the detail was Guards Major Kozlov, and, after his departure, the removal of the items was directed by a political commissar with the rank of first lieutenant. Description of the latter: tall with black hair, crooked nose and his uniform was made of elegant extra-fine material. He was seen recently in Budapest, with his head now shaved. During the course of the work connected with taking the items under protection, Colonel Susmanovich was to be seen in the bank on many occasions. Throughout the entire time it was going on, a bank director from Moscow was present. His description: dark face, tall, corpulent, probably of Jewish origin and with a good command of German. According to our information, his name may be Sadukov.
The clearing of the Elsoý Hazai Takarékpénztár Részvénytársaság took place in similar manner and at approximately the same time. The above-mentioned bank director from Moscow was present, who, according to information from those there, is the director of the Soviet National Bank. Also in attendance was a Russian soldier by the name of Vladimir Surkovsky (?), who is 28 years old and accountant at a sugar refinery in Odessa. He is at present serving in Buda at the Pilsudszky út headquarters in Attila út. The name of another Russian soldier who was also present: Ivan ... He is performing guard duties at the headquarters in Veres Pálné u. He has one eye, his right exe being constantly covered with a black patch. The above-mentioned bank director from Moscow is also stationed in Budapest.
The listing of the above persons has become necessary so that, with their assistance, we can establish more accurately than hitherto the present whereabouts of the items in question, since, according to the indications, it was this detail which undertook the removal of the items placed in all the above banks.
According to our information to date, the items taken away from the monetary institutions listed above were taken to the following locations:
Hungarian Mint, Üllői út,
Francis Joseph Infantry Barracks, Üllői út,
Russian City Headquarters, Múzeum krt. 11.,
Vaults of the Magyar Általános Hitelbank,
Vaults of the Pénzintézeti Központ (Centre for Monetary Institutions).
Verification of the identity and the supplementing of the list with the help of the detailed notes in our possession would necessitate on-site inspections. We request that our representative should be able to inspect the items sought and asked back at the locations listed.

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