Christie’s to auction 63 art lots from Israel Museum

PARIS (Press Release) – As part of the June 8 sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s is pleased to partner
with the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to offer a selection of works from the Vera & Arturo Schwarz Collection. The selection of 63 lots will be offered in Paris.

From its inception, the Israel Museum was conceived as a dynamic and modular museum, designed to encourage the growth and diversification of its holdings over time. In keeping with the principles of good collection management, the Museum continually reviews and evaluates its holdings with an eye towards identifying areas of duplication or lacunae. In line with this rigorous
policy and following careful review, the Museum has identified a select group of artworks for deaccession from its broad holdings of Modern Art. All proceeds from the sale of these works will be directed back into the Acquisitions Fund for the Department of Modern Art with the goal ofmaking strategic additions over time that will strengthen and enhance the diversity and scope of
the Department’s core collection.

The Museum is grateful to their patrons who enable to achieve this goal. It is an agreement prior to each donation made to the museum, to which Arturo Schwarz had subscribed by donating more than 800 works to the museum in 1998: « My contributions
together with the Israel Museum’s strong commitment to the display and research of Dada and Surrealism, have since made the Museum a renowned international center for researchers and the public alike, igniting creative exhibitions and providing sources for pioneering research. It is my greatest joy to see the continued growth of the collection. Realizing the Museum’s developing
nature, I support its carefully implemented deaccession policy, yielding funds towards the purchase of new works in the spirit of my collection, and enabling the Museum’s Modern Art Department to refine its collection for the benefit of all. »

Born in Alexandria, in his youth Arturo Schwarz made the acquaintance of the Egyptian Surrealists –the so-called ‘Art and Liberty Group’ – and was active not only in Zionist organizations but in clandestine Trotskyite circles. Arrested in 1947 because of his political activities, he spent a year and a half in the notorious Hadra prison. In 1949, he made his way to Milan, his mother’s birthplace, where he opened a book store that grew into a thriving art gallery—Galleria Schwarz—devoted mainly to the Surrealist movement and contemporary Italian art.

Schwarz forged particularly close friendships and artistic ties with André Breton, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp, eventually authoring an important monograph on Man Ray and the catalogue raisonné of Duchamp’s oeuvre.

« This collection bears witness to my deep love and interest in these movements and reflects lifelong personal ties with many of the protagonists of these movements. Ranging from Europe to South America, from the sixteenth century to the present,and encompassing a wide range of artworks—paintings, sculpture, objects, photographs, and works on paper, my collection disregarded
conventional aesthetic distinctions and hierarchies of major and secondary works by “important” and “less important” artists. It was not physical beauty that interested me; it was spiritual beauty and the idea behind it, and when it was strong enough it
became physical beauty, but not the other way around. To be of interest to me, a work of art had to widen my mental and visual horizon. »

In 1998, following two initial donations to the museum, Arturo and Vera Schwarz decided to cede to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem their entire collection dedicated to the Surrealist and Dadaist movement, comprising nearly 800 works by over 200 artists. With the arrival of the Schwarz Collection, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem has become a world centre for the study and exhibition of Dadaism, Surrealism and their legacies.

The 63 works in the collection highlight the works of Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Augustin Cardenas, Matta, William Copley, Enrico Donati and many other artists who played a pioneering role or a significant role in the surrealist movement. Representing the panorama of the movement with British, Scandinavian, Latin American and Canadian artists, the
collection offers a window on the creation of the surrealist movement throughout the world and for
seven decades. It is one of the most significant sets offered for public sale.

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Preceding provided by Christie’s.