Justin Thannhauser

Justin studied in Munich, Berlin, Florence, and Paris, with renowned scholars such as Henri Bergson, Adolf Goldschmidt, and Heinrich Wölfflin.

He later brought Wölfflin and other eminent guests to hold private lectures at the Moderne Galerie, helping to turn it into one of Munich's leading art galleries.

He began to slowly rebuild the business's reputation, which had weakened during the war, by organizing conservative exhibitions of German paintings and works on paper.

Although the Nazi government considered Modern art to be "degenerate," he had paid a steep export tax and was thus permitted to bring many important works and archive materials with him.

He was also voted into the Syndicat des Editeurs d'Art et Négotiants en Tableaux Modernes, Paris's professional society of art dealers.

However, due to the death of Heinz (who was killed in combat in 1944) and the poor health of Michel (who would ultimately die in 1952), Justin canceled his plans to open a public gallery and placed a large number of works up for auction in 1945.

He also hosted many international cultural luminaries in his home, including Picasso, Louise Bourgeois, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Renoir, John D. Rockefeller, and Thomas M. Messer, then Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, among many others.

[8] Because the terms called for the works to be permanently installed in a designated space so that they would be publicly accessible, the Guggenheim created the Thannhauser Wing in 1965.

In 2003, the heirs of Carlotta Landsberg filed a lawsuit for the return of Picasso's Woman in White (Femme en Blanc), which had been placed in safekeeping with Thannhauser when they fled the Nazis.

[14] In 2007, the heirs of Berlin banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy requested the restitution of the Picasso oil painting "Le Moulin de la Galette", which Thannhauser had given to the Guggenheim.

[17] In January 2023, a claim was filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court against the Guggenheim Museum by the heirs of Karl Adler and Rosi Jacobi demanding the repatriation of Picasso's Woman Ironing.

[20] Also in 2023, the heirs of Hedwig Stern filed a restitution claim for Vincent Van Gogh's Olive Picking against the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.