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Pieces diverses concernant L’Art Royal du V. de Beauchaîne, and other Masonic texts

1760s

Medium/TechniqueManuscript: pen and ink with mounted etchings and engravings

DimensionsOverall: 23.9 x 19 x 2.4 cm (9 7/16 x 7 1/2 x 15/16 in.)

Credit LineGift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild

Accession number2015.68

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts

Collections

Prints and Drawings

ProvenanceCharles Marie Gabriel Cousin (b. 1822 - d. 1890), Paris; April 7-11, 1891, posthumous Cousin sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 769. Nathaniel von Rothschild (b. 1836 - d. 1905), Vienna [see note 1]; by descent to his nephew, 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; taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna; March, 1941, transferred to the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna (Ser. nov. 2838) [see note 2]; August 17, 2004, released by the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek and returned to Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild's daughter, Bettina Looram de Rothschild (b. 1924 - d. 2012); by descent to her heirs; 2015, gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 25, 2015)

NOTES:
[1] Inventar über die in den Nathaniel Freiherr von Rotschild'schen Nachlass gehörigen, in dem Palais in Wien, IV. Bezirk, Theresianumgasse Nr. 14 befindlichen Kunstgegenstände und Einrichtungsstücke (Vienna, 1906), p. 371, no. 498.

[2] 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. The manuscripts were separated from the contents of the library, and were taken -- along with the art collection -- to be considered for inclusion in the Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria. In 1941, this manuscript was transferred to the Austrian National Library, or Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Most but not all of the books and manuscripts were returned to Clarice de Rothschild immediately after World War II. In 2004, upon the recommendation of the Austrian Commission for Provenance Research, the objects that remained in the National Library were released by the Austrian State and returned to Bettina Looram de Rothschild.