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Rectangular box
French
about 1785
Medium/Technique
Gold-mounted bloodstone, diamonds
Dimensions
L. 3 in.
Credit Line
Gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild
Accession Number2013.1740
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsBoxes
DescriptionWith diamond-set thumbpiece
Marks
"514" on right bezel.
Two 19th-century export control marks
Two 19th-century export control marks
ProvenanceBy 1938, Alphonse de Rothschild (b. 1878 – d. 1942) and Clarice de Rothschild (b. 1894 – d. 1967), Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild by Nazi forces (probably no. AR 1293) [see note 1]; taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna; August 28,1941, given over to the Federal Monuments Offices, Vienna, and later removed to the monastery of Kremsmünster and subsequently to Alt Aussee; 1945, recovered by Allied forces; about 1947/1950, returned to Clarice de Rothschild, New York [see note 2]; by descent to her daughter, Bettina Looram de Rothschild (b. 1924 - d. 2012); about 1990/1992, given by Bettina Looram de Rothschild to members of her family; 2013, gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 18, 2013)
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This box appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939, probably as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 1293: "Dose, viereckig, Achat, dunkelblaugrau, heliotrop mit roten Einsprengungen, Goldfassung, kleines Zierstück mit Muschel in Brillanten." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1046.
[2] This box was catalogued at the Central Depot, and given over to the Federal Monuments Office in 1941. Card no. AR 1293, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online. It was probably among the many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis, which were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. In 1947 Clarice de Rothschild visited the salt mines at Alt Aussee, where she was able to identify the crates of works of art from her family’s collection, facilitating its return shortly thereafter.
NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This box appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939, probably as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 1293: "Dose, viereckig, Achat, dunkelblaugrau, heliotrop mit roten Einsprengungen, Goldfassung, kleines Zierstück mit Muschel in Brillanten." Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1046.
[2] This box was catalogued at the Central Depot, and given over to the Federal Monuments Office in 1941. Card no. AR 1293, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online. It was probably among the many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis, which were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. In 1947 Clarice de Rothschild visited the salt mines at Alt Aussee, where she was able to identify the crates of works of art from her family’s collection, facilitating its return shortly thereafter.