Cleveland Museum of Art

In April 2013, The Cleveland Museum of Art entered into a settlement with the heirs of Dr. Arthur Feldmann with respect to a drawing by Johann Liss entitled Allegory of the Christian Faith. The drawing remains at the Museum. Dr. Feldmann, an attorney in Brno, Czech Republic, accumulated a significant collection of drawings. In 1939, shortly after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Germany, the contents of Dr. Feldmann’s home, including his drawings collection, were seized. Dr. Feldmann was arrested, tortured and died in 1941. Mrs. Feldmann was deported to Theresienstadt and later perished at Auschwitz.

The drawing is known to be in Dr. Feldmann’s collection as early as 1929, when it was seen by Dr. Otto Benesch and noted as in the collection of Dr. Arthur Feldmann. Dr. Benesch published the work in a 1933 article, Beschreibender Katalog, Die Zeichnungen der Deutschen Schulen, indicating its provenance as “Feldmann Collection.” The drawing was published again in 1940 by Kurt Steinbart in Johann Liss der Maler aus Holstein (and in a subsequent revised edition under the same title published in 1946), but the ownership, in both additions, was attributed to Dr. O. Feldmann (one of Dr. Arthur Feldmann’s two sons). Dr. Benesch again published the work in 1951 in an article Liss’s ‘Temptation of St Anthony’, indicating its provenance as formerly in the collection of Dr. A. Feldmann. The Museum acquired the drawing in 1953 from a London dealer, Herbert Bier, whose records indicate he acquired the work that same year from R.A. Newton.

Mr. Uri Peled, Dr. Feldmann’s grandson, said on behalf of Dr Feldmann's heirs, “I would like to express our delight that this drawing is remaining in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. We are sure that our grandfather would have wanted the drawing to be available to the public and for future research”.