Carel van Lier

Charles (Carel) van Lier (The Hague, September 5, 1897 - Hannover-Mühlenberg, March 15, 1945) was a Dutch Jewish art dealer deported in World War II who died in 1945 in a concentration camp[1]

Personal life

Carel van Lier was the son of Samuel van Lier and Franciska Adelaar.[2][3]

He married twice and lived in Blaricum after his second marriage. [4][5]

Career

In 1927, Van Lier opened the Kunstzaal Van Lier at the Rokin 126 in Amsterdam.[6][7] He exhibited works by contemporary artists from the movements of realism, magical realism, expressionism, as well as ethnography, African and Asia art [8][9]

Artists who exhibited with him before the Second World War included Henk Chabot, Edgar Fernhout and Rachel Fernhout-Pellekaan, Jan van Herwijnen, Raoul Hynckes, Dick Ket, Wim Schumacher, Jan Sluijters, Charley Toorop, Henri van de Velde and Carel Willink.

Nazi-era arrest, deportation and death

After Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 Van Lier was persecuted because of his Jewish descent. His art gallery was put under "Aryan" management in 1942. On April 6 or 7, 1943, he was arrested by the Germans in Blaricum.[10] Together with Willem Arondeus, he helped artists in hiding by arranging false identity cards for them.

He was imprisoned in the Amstelveenseweg in Amsterdam and then sent to Westerbork via camp Amersfoort. On 23 March 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz, where he had to work in the Laurahütte. Via Mauthausen and Neuengamme. He died in the Hannover-Mühlenberg satellite camp in 1945.

Legacy

After the war, the art dealership was continued by his widow until 1949 and then by others until 1956.[11]

In 2003, TOTH published a description of his life and his art gallery by the hand of his grandson under the title "Carel van Lier - Art dealer, trailblazer, 1897 - 1945", taken from an article written about him by Lier in 1929.[12]

Restitution claims

Van Lier died in Mühlenberg concentration camp in Germany between 1 and 15 March 1945. On 30 March 2007, the grandson of the Amsterdam-based art dealer ‘Carel van Lier’ submitted a restitution claim to the Dutch Restitution Committee for artworks sold to the' Museum für Völkerkunde in Frankfurt am Main 'in Germany on 11 April 1941.[13] However the Dutch committee rejected the claim stating "were sold by Van Lier himself and that there is no evidence that this sale was the result of any direct threat or coercion on the part of the Nazi authorities"[14][15]

Lawsuits Nazi-looted art

  • Grosz v. Museum of Modern Art, 772 F. Supp. 2d 473 (S.D.N.Y. 2010)[16][17][18][19]

Research projects

  • The Krefeld Art Museums is conducting a study "with Regard to Colonial Contexts" [20][21]

References

  1. ^ "Ontdek kunsthandel (bedrijf) Kunstzaal Van Lier". rkd.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2022-01-31. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  2. ^ Genealogie, Coret. "Naissance Franciska Adelaar le 4 avril 1869 à Zutphen (Pays-Bas)". Archives Ouvertes (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  3. ^ "Charles (Carel) van Lier". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  4. ^ "Over Charles van Lier". Joods Monument. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
  5. ^ "Lydia Mandel". rkd.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  6. ^ "Ontdek kunsthandel (bedrijf) Kunstzaal Van Lier". rkd.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  7. ^ "Lier: Carel van Lier, 2003". www.proveana.de. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  8. ^ "Kunstzaal van Lier". www.proveana.de. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  9. ^ "Carel van Lier". vanabbemuseum.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  10. ^ "Art dealership Van Lier". www.restitutiecommissie.nl. Archived from the original on 2016-04-22. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  11. ^ "Ontdek kunsthandel (bedrijf) Kunstzaal Van Lier". web.archive.org. 2022-01-31. Archived from the original on 2022-01-31. Retrieved 2022-01-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. ^ "Carel van Lier : a pioneering art dealer". siris-libraries.si.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-10. In article on Dutch gallery owner, Carel van Lier, who exhibited and sold modern Western art, and Asian, African, and Oceanic art, in his gallery, Kunstzaal van Lier, in Amsterdam in the 1920s and 1930s. The article is accompanied by numerous black and white photographs, mainly of masks and figurines from the D.R. of the Congo, taken from a book (unnamed in the article) Lier published in 1929.
  13. ^ "Art dealership Van Lier". Restitutiecommissie. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  14. ^ "Art dealership Van Lier". www.restitutiecommissie.nl. Archived from the original on 2016-04-22. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  15. ^ "German Historical Institute London" (PDF).
  16. ^ "Grosz v. Museum of Modern Art, 772 F. Supp. 2d 473 – CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-05-04. Amsterdam Art Dealer Carel van Lier. Carel van Lier is alleged to have been a cunning Dutch art dealer who ran Kunstzaal van Lier in Amsterdam, where Self Portrait was consigned in 1936 (and where it remained upon Flechtheim's death the following year). (Id. ¶ 51.) In early 1938, van Lier arranged to have Automatons transferred to his Kunstzaal from the Mayor Gallery in London, where Flechtheim had consigned it in 1934. (Id. ¶¶ 16, 57.) The Complaint does not allege who authorized the transfer. Later that year, van Lier, whom the plaintiffs accuse of having "lacked any moral compass," allegedly arranged a "sham" auction at the Mak van Waay auction house in Holland to launder artworks stolen by the Nazis. (See id. 1157.) At that "auction," van Lier purportedly purchased a collection of Grosz's pieces that he himself had "put up for auction," including Self Portrait, which the plaintiffs suggest he bought at a deeply discounted price. (Id. ¶ 56 (16 guilder for Self Portrait).) A couple of months later, he resold the piece for a handsome profit to Leo Lionni, who was then the Art Director of Fortune magazine. (Id.) Meanwhile, Automatons was bundled with three other watercolors and one drawing, which were collectively sold at the same auction for 25 guilders. (Id. ¶ 57.) An individual known simply as "Brant" or "Brandt" (both names appear in the Complaint) is alleged to have been the purchaser. (Id. ¶¶ 16, 57.) Brandt then sold the work to Dr. Herbert Tannenbaum in 1939 for an unknown amount, and Dr. Tannenbaum soon thereafter sold the piece to Dr. William Landman of Toronto, from whom MoMA would ultimately purchase the piece in 1946. (Id. ¶¶ 58-59.)
  17. ^ "New evidence in Grosz Nazi loot case against MoMA". www.theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04. How the seller in 1938, Carel van Lier, obtained the works remains unclear, but it is known that he purchased back Self-Portrait with a Model for 16 Guilders ($11) and sold it on two months later for 150 Guilders ($102) to Fortune magazine director Leo Lionni, who donated it to MoMA in 1954.
  18. ^ Cohan, William D.; Cohan, William D. (2011-11-17). "MoMA's Problematic Provenances". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04. Dowd argues (and Petropoulos agrees) that both Self-Portrait with a Model and Republican Automatons were also stolen after Flechtheim's death. Dowd says that a Dutch art dealer, Carel van Lier, brought a collection of Grosz's art to Amsterdam after Flechtheim's death "or a purported 'auction'" to take place at the beginning of February 1938. Van Lier had previously tried to sell the collection for Flechtheim, but it had failed to sell. The new "auction" also failed, Dowd argues, and van Lier decided to buy Self-Portrait for himself, for around $10. "Van Lier never obtained Grosz's consent as the owner of the artwork, before engaging in this void transaction," Dowd wrote in his complaint. Van Lier resold the painting two months later, for around $95, to Leo Lionni, the art director of Fortune magazine. Lionni donated the painting to MoMA in 1954.
  19. ^ "Groszcomplaint" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-04. Retrieved 2021-05-04. After Grosz' art dealer, Alfred Flechtheim, died from blood poisoning, a Dutch art dealer named van Lier quickly grabbed Flechtheim's inventory and "auctioned" it to himself . Van Lier never contacted Grosz, the owner of the artwork, before engaging in this void transaction. MOMA relies on this sham Dutch auction as the excuse for wrongfully retaining possession of Self Portrait with Model. The Dutch art market historically lacked any moral compass. When the Nazis came to power, they immediately snatched up artworks in Holland by Jews fleeing Nazi persecution.
  20. ^ "Lier: Carel van Lier, 2003". www.proveana.de. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
  21. ^ "Erste Bestandsprüfung ethnografischer Objekte der Kunstmuseen Krefeld mit Blick auf koloniale Kontexte". www.proveana.de. Retrieved 2025-11-10.
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