Erich Lederer

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Erich Lederer
Born(1896-09-13)September 13, 1896
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
DiedJanuary 19, 1985(1985-01-19) (aged 89)
Geneva, Switzerland
Occupation(s)Art collector, patron
Known forLederer family art collection, Klimt restitution, Beethoven Frieze
Parent(s)August Lederer, Serena Lederer (née Pulitzer)

Erich Lederer (1896–1985) was an Austrian-born art collector, heir to the prominent Lederer family collection, and a key figure in post-war restitution debates, especially concerning Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze.

Early life

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Erich Lederer was born in Vienna in 1896 to industrialist and collector August Lederer and Serena Lederer (née Pulitzer). The Lederers were major patrons of the Viennese Secession, especially of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. [1][2]

Relationship with Egon Schiele

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Portrait of Erich Lederer by Egon Schiele

Lederer became friends with Egon Schiele around 1912, reportedly introduced by Klimt. According to his biographical record, Schiele made several portraits of him, and Lederer himself was artistically inclined as a youth. [1]

Nazi persecution and exile

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After the Anschluss (merger of Austria with Nazi Germany) in 1938, the Lederers were persecuted because of their Jewish heritage. Erich Lederer fled Austria and settled in Geneva, Switzerland Many parts of the Lederer family's art collection had been confiscated or displaced during the Nazi era.[3]

The Lederers were classified as Jewish under the Nuremberg Laws, and their assets in Austria were placed under “provisional administration,” leading to the loss of their residential properties in Vienna, household furnishings, bank accounts, securities, and other financial holdings.[2] Most significant was the seizure and dispersal of the family’s major art collection, one of the most important private holdings of works by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.[4] Many artworks were confiscated directly, transferred to Nazi-controlled repositories, or forcibly sold through state-directed dealers such as the Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz. Portions of the collection were sent to storage facilities, including Schloss Immendorf, where several Klimt canvases owned by the Lederers were destroyed by fire in 1945.[5][6]

Restitution and export bans

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After the war, Erich Lederer pursued restitution claims for both financial assets and artworks, recovering some pieces, while others remained missing, destroyed, or locked behind Austrian export restrictions for decades.[7]

One of the artworks that Lederer successfully recovered was the Klimt Beethoven Frieze.[8] However, due to Austrian export controls on culturally significant works, he was unable to take the artwork out of Austria, including bringing the frieze to his home in Switzerland.[9] In 1973, he sold the frieze to the Republic of Austria for US$750,000.[10] The sale and its circumstances have been contested by his heirs, who argue it was made under duress due to the export ban.[11][12][7]

In 2015, an Austrian advisory panel recommended against returning the frieze to the heirs, a decision the government followed.[13]

Another artwork that Lederer recovered was the portrait that Klimt had painted of his older sister, Elisabeth Lederer. In November 2025, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer was sold at Sotheby's by the estate of the art collector Leonard Lauder for $238 million.[14][15]

Later life

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In his later years, Erich Lederer lived in Geneva and built a reputation as a connoisseur of Renaissance bronzes. [1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Le Claire Kunsthandel Kat 23 "Gustav Klimt"" (PDF).
  2. ^ a b "The Lederer Collection, Lost and Found". www.getty.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  3. ^ "Viennese art – DW – 11/04/2013". dw.com. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  4. ^ "Sammlerschicksal als Mahnung". news.ORF.at (in German). 6 March 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  5. ^ "The Lederer Collection, Lost and Found". www.getty.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2025. Between 1938 and 1939, the Lederer collection was subject to Aryanization, a euphemism for the Nazis' confiscation of Jewish-owned property, including businesses, homes, household goods, and artwork. The greatest of these artworks were destined for Hitler's never-realized museum in Linz, Austria. The Gestapo seized most of the Lederers' art, including works that now reside in the Getty Museum's permanent collection: a 14th-century panel painting, a 15th-century Italian glazed jar, and the 16th-century elephant shown at the top of this article.
  6. ^ "Posthumous Fame and Legend". Gustav Klimt-Datenbank. Retrieved 20 November 2025. The Lederer family's extensive art collection was seized in 1938. When the Reich's governor of Vienna organized a major Klimt exhibition in 1943, he drew on the art collection that had been seized by the authorities and exhibited the masterpieces from the Lederer Collection without the owner's consent. By this time, Serena Lederer had already fled to Budapest, where she died that same year. Her daughter, Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt, died in Vienna in 1944, and her son managed to emigrate to Switzerland, where he lived until his death. After the end of the war, he received back the Klimt drawings that had been stored in Altaussee. Gustav Klimt's oil paintings, however, had been destroyed by fire at Immendorf Castle in Lower Austria as a consequence of the war.
  7. ^ a b Esguerra, Cristina. "The turbulent history of Klimt's Nazi-seized works". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 20 November 2025. The export ban blocking the frieze. The frieze was returned to the Lederer family — at least in theory. But the work could not leave Austria since it was subject to an export ban, put in place to prevent émigré families from taking away what was beginning to be considered Austria's cultural heritage. "From the beginning they told Erich that the frieze [leaving Austria] wasn't up for discussion," says one of the heirs, who prefers to remain anonymous. Erich Lederer, who had moved to Geneva, was therefore forced to sell the work at a cut-rate price, claim the heirs. By 1972, Lederer had lost all hope of getting the artwork sent to Switzerland, and accepted the government's offer of 15 million shillings, around $750,000 dollars. "What people don't know is that a lot of it" — the aggressive government acquisition of artworks — "took place after the war," says the heir.
  8. ^ "Commission meeting on 6 March 2015 unofficial translation" (PDF).
  9. ^ "Austria panel opposes return of Klimt frieze looted by Nazis". BBC News. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2025. In 1915 it was sold to a Jewish industrialist, August Lederer. In 1938, much of Mr Lederer's art collection, including the frieze, was seized by the Nazis. After the war the frieze was returned to August Lederer's son, Erich, who was living in Switzerland - but there was a catch. It was subject to an export ban and Erich wasn't allowed to take it out of Austria. The heirs of the Lederers argue that as a result of the export ban, Erich Lederer was forced to sell the work to the Austrian state at a cut-rate price in 1972.
  10. ^ "Austria Won't Return Klimt Painting Stolen by Nazis". TIME. Archived from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  11. ^ "Austria Rules Against Restituting Klimt's Beethoven Frieze to Heirs". Artnet News. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  12. ^ "Jewish Family Presses Austria to Return Famed Klimt Artwork". Voice of America. 16 October 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2025. The case of Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze will test Austria's laws on restitution of looted art. It centers on the Lederer family, Jews who fled to Switzerland when Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938 and the family's extensive art collection was seized. The collection included the monumental 1902 frieze, paying homage to the German composer's Ninth Symphony and now housed in a climate-controlled room at Vienna's Secession museum. Erich Lederer got the mammoth work back after the war but with a hitch: Austria would let him export his other artworks only if he sold the frieze to the state at a discount price, family lawyer Marc Weber said.
  13. ^ Press, Associated (6 March 2015). "Austrian panel rules against return of Klimt frieze to Jewish collector's heirs". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  14. ^ "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer: Why this mysterious Klimt painting sold for $236m". www.bbc.com. 19 November 2025. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  15. ^ "Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) | Leonard A. Lauder, Collector | Evening Auction | 2025". Sotheby's. Retrieved 20 November 2025. Provenance. August and Serena Lederer, Vienna (commissioned from the artist in 1914 and acquired in 1916). Impounded in situ at Bartensteingasse 8 by Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz, 26 November 1938. Seized by Landesgericht Wien and deposited at Kirchner & Co, Vienna, 10 December 1939. Termination of seizure, 30 September 1948. Restituted to Erich Lederer, Geneva in 1948 (son of Serena Lederer and brother of Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt, née Lederer). Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York (acquired from the above by 1983). Acquired from the above in December 1985 by the present owner
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