Leutwitz Apollo (4): Myth and Mystery - Making

There is a lot of detail in a valuable Steven Litt newspaper report: A god of myth cloaked in mystery Museum takes heat over ancient Apollo, The Plain Dealer Sunday, September 12, 2004. This is  important because it was written close to the fact-finding attempts by the museum and presumably includes information supplied by the Museum at this time:

The museum first learned about the Apollo in April 2003, when Bennett visited the Phoenix gallery in Geneva. Impressed, he called Reid, who asked that the Apollo be sent to Cleveland for what turned out to be a year of scrutiny. Bennett said the gallery refused to tell him from whom it had bought the work. And while the gallery provided photographs of the sculpture undergoing a restoration recently, the dealers told the curator they didn't know who did the work. Instead, the gallery referred Bennett to Walter, who said the work had been in the collection of his family since the early 1930s, on an estate in Lausitz, a region east of Dresden. The communist government of East Germany confiscated the estate after World War II. Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Walter filed a successful claim to repossess it. He said he found the Apollo lying in pieces on the floor of a manor house, in 1993 or 1994, according to Bennett. In 1994, the lawyer showed the sculpture to Lucia Marinescu, a Romanian scholar. But her response apparently did nothing to convince Walter to keep the work. Walter told Bennett and Reid that he sold the piece later in 1994 to a Dutch art dealer for 1,600 Deutschmarks, or $1,250 in 2004 dollars, thinking it was an 18th- or 19th-century garden ornament. Walter also told the museum he couldn't remember the dealer's name, and that he has no receipt. Marinescu lectured about the sculpture at an international conference on ancient bronzes, held in Bucharest in May 2003. That was a month after the sculpture was shipped from Geneva to Cleveland. Bennett said Marinescu hasn't shared with the museum the photographs she took during her 1994 visit to Walter. Through an interpreter, Marinescu declined to be interviewed. The museum believes that the Apollo changed hands several times while moving from Germany to the Netherlands and Switzerland. But there's no paper trail.

There are a couple of very interesting details here, especially when compared with the later story as presented by Bennett (2013).

- It emerges from the book that when the "year of scrutiny"  was over, in effect no more material was gathered to verify the reconstructed collecting history. Almost all of what Bennett (2013) reports was already known in 2004. yet does that mean that there is no other information to be had?

- Bennett said the gallery refused to tell him from whom it had bought the work.
but that put nobody off. And it should have.

-  the gallery provided photographs of the sculpture undergoing a restoration recently, the dealers told the curator they didn't know who did the work.  and had no conservation report?


- Walter filed a successful claim to repossess it. This text gives the impression that it is from "the Communist government" the house and its contents were "claimed" in 1990-1991. In fact CMA learnt in December 2003 that the house had been in the possession of Walter's family until the death of his great aunt in the 1980s (Bennett 2013, 71). That actually puts a whole new complexion on the story.

-  He said he found the Apollo lying in pieces on the floor of a manor house, in 1993 or 1994, according to Bennett. And Mr Bennett found nothing to conflict with that? Interesting!

- In 1994, the lawyer showed the sculpture to Lucia Marinescu, a Romanian scholar. And Mr Bennett found nothing to conflict with that? Interesting!

- But her response apparently did nothing to convince Walter to keep the work. Or perhaps she had not in fact told him at all that the statue was antique? There are two possible reasons for that, which one did Mr Bennett choose?

- Bennett said Marinescu hasn't shared with the museum the photographs she took during her 1994 visit to Walter. But she shared with the conference participants the photos of the statue which she saw in a "private collection" - has Mr Bennett not seen them and wondered what they mean?

- Through an interpreter, Marinescu declined to be interviewed. Odd that. One would have thought she'd be willing to chat about this, as the lucky discoverer of this highly important object, one which brings her kudos at the end of her career - she emphasises. Why would she not be willing to answer some questions, share a few anecdotes about the visit to the colourful Mr Walter who offered her so much hospitality?


So many questions,  and so few answers in Michael Bennett's "exhaustive" study "Praxiteles: The Cleveland Apollo".