Brno's gallery returns artifact, furniture to Tugendhat heirs

Brno- The Moravian Gallery in Brno has released a statue “Torso of a Walking Woman” by Wilhelm


Lehmbruck, which is today auctioned at Sotheby’s in London, as well as as four pieces of the original furniture from the rare UNESCO-listed functionalist Tugendhat Villa to the heirs of its original owners, gallery spokeswoman Hana Dolezalova said.
The furniture is still stored at the gallery’s depository.
The daughters of the original owners have claimed the artifacts and furniture from the villa on the basis of the law on redressing some wrongs caused by the Holocaust.
They said they had serious emotional bonds to the torso as it was family heritage, but in spite of that they offered it for an auction at Sotheby’s.
The gallery still preserves the original period furniture from the Tugendhat Villa, including a wooden sideboard, a veneered bench, a table with a cut glass board and a steel frame and a chromium-plated armchair, Dolezalova added.
The gallery must release the furniture to the Tugendhats if they asked for it.
The Tugendhats have claimed the entire villa on the basis of the same law on redressing some wrongs caused by the Holocaust.
However, according to legal experts, the law does not allow the city to return the villa to the heirs. As the original idea to transfer the villa into the ownership of the state that would eventually return it to the heirs, was dropped, the property transfer via the Moravian Gallery is being considered.
Deputy Brno mayor Barbora Javorova (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) said that a trilateral agreement between Brno, the Moravian Gallery and the Tugendhat heirs should be signed to embed for instance the necessary condition that the new owners must open the building to the public and keep it on the UNESCO heritage list.
The Tugendhats have promised to Brno representatives to restore the villa in its original shape. This is also why the auction of Lehmbruck’s statue has surprised some of them.
Daniela Hammer Tugendhat, one of the two daughters of the original owner, said that the family had offered the statue for auction before it asked for the villa, but would not withdraw it from the auction now. She did not confirm that the money for the artifact would be invested in the villa’s repair.
Some local inhabitants and politicians have started to criticise the Tugendhats over their stance on the heritage.
Former Brno mayor and MEP Petr Duchon (Civic Democrats, ODS) said that the town should not give up the villa.
The villa, designed by German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1928, was put on the UNESCO list of the world’s cultural heritage in 2001 as the only modern style building in the Czech Republic.
Experts point out its unique space layout, used material and furniture.
Its original owners, Greta and Fritz Tugendhat, came from the families of significant textile businessmen. They lived in the villa until 1938 when their family fled from the Nazis to Switzerland and later to Venezuela.
After the occupation of the Czech Lands, the villa was seized by the Gestapo in 1940. In 1945 it was confiscated by the Czechoslovak state as Nazi property.