Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Image Not Available for Saint Martin dividing his coat with a Beggar
Saint Martin dividing his coat with a Beggar
Image Not Available for Saint Martin dividing his coat with a Beggar

Saint Martin dividing his coat with a Beggar

early 16th century
Object PlaceGermany
Medium/TechniqueWood; Polychrome wood
Dimensions99.06 cm (39 in.)
Credit LineGift of the Class of the Museum of Fine Arts (Mrs. Arthur L.Devens, Chair)
Accession number52.1754
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsSculpture
Collections
ProvenanceEmile Gavet (b. 1830- d. 1904), Paris. Oscar Bondy (b. 1870 - d. 1944) and Elisabeth Bondy, Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy by Nazi forces (no. OB 1424) [see note 1]; stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna and selected for the Führermuseum, Linz [see note 2]; removed to the monastery of Kremsmünster (no. Kku 367) and subsequently to Alt Aussee; July 17, 1945, recovered by Allied forces and taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point (no. 4689) [see note 3]; March 15, 1948, released to the United States Forces in Austria for restitution to Elisabeth (Mrs. Oscar) Bondy, New York [see note 4]. 1952, gift of the Class of the Museum of Fine Arts to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 11, 1952)

NOTES:
[1] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This sculpture is identifiable in an undated photograph of a room in Bondy's Vienna home (copy in MFA curatorial file) and is included in a Nazi-generated inventory of his collection (July 4, 1938; Vienna, BDA-Archiv, Restitutions-Materialen, K 8/1), no. 1424 ("Hl. Martin auf Pferd, Holzskulptur, vergoldet, Donaukreis, 16 Jh. H=94"). Also see Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 229, where it is listed in a Nazi inventory of his possessions as well (April 3, 1939; Vienna, BDA-Archiv, Restitutions-Materialen, K 8/3).

[2] The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given right of first refusal over the confiscated collection. This sculpture was selected for inclusion.

[3] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the artwork ar the end of World War II and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This sculpture came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (no. 3338) and was numbered 4689.

[4] Mr. Bondy and his wife left Europe and emigrated to the United States, where he passed away in 1944. In the years following World War II, much of his collection was restituted to his widow and subsequently sold on the New York art market. For further on Oscar Bondy, see Lillie, 2003 (as above, n. 1), pp. 216-245.