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The story of dealers of Old Masters, champions of modern art, and
victims of Nazi plunder. Since the late-1990s, the fate of Nazi
stolen art has become a cause celebre. In Belonging and Betrayal,
Charles Dellheim turns this story on its head by revealing how
certain Jewish outsiders came to acquire so many old and modern
masterpieces in the first place - and what this reveals about Jews,
art, and modernity. This book tells the epic story of the fortunes
and misfortunes of a small number of eminent art dealers and
collectors who, against the odds, played a pivotal role in the
migration of works of art from Europe to the United States and in
the triumph of modern art. Beautifully written and compellingly
told, this story takes place on both sides of the Atlantic from the
late nineteenth century to the present. It is set against the
backdrop of critical transformations, among them the gradual
opening of European high culture, the ambiguities of Jewish
acculturation, the massive sell-off of aristocratic family art
collections, the emergence of different schools of modern art, the
cultural impact of World War I, and the Nazi war against the Jews.
It is a striking paradox of nineteenth-century England that as it
became the first industrial nation, it became increasingly
fascinated by its preindustrial past and, in particular, its
medieval inheritance. The preservation of that inheritance was a
major cultural achievement of Victorian England, one that resonates
in contemporary historic preservationist movements still so common
throughout England. This is a study not of an elite of artists and
thinkers but of broad cultural activities, such as local
archaeology and tourism, historic preservation and restoration, and
architectural historianism. Professor Dellheim argues that the
interest in the medieval past was far more than a revolt against
modern civilization. The concern with the past had both
"progressive" as well as "conservative" uses and expressed and
reflected both provincial and national consciousness. In its
broadest sense, the book shows how the Victorians reworked
tradition to suit the needs of their unprecedented society.
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