Anita Halpin
Anita E. Halpin (born April 1944) is an English communist and trade union activist of German-Jewish descent who has been successful in having paintings returned to her that were looted by the Nazis from her grandfather, Alfred Hess, in the 1930s.
Early life and family
Anita E. Hess was born in April 1944, in New End Hospital, Hampstead, London. Her father was Hans Hess, assistant curator at the former Leicester Museum, who emigrated to England in 1933 via a Canadian internment camp. Her mother was Lillie Ester Hess née Williams, an engineer's clerk and possibly half German. They met through Jewish friends and were both described as being on the political left. Anita was an only child.[1][2]
Her grandfather was the German-Jewish Alfred Hess, a shoe manufacturer in Erfurt,[3] whose factory was Aryanised after 1933, who with his wife Tekla had an art collection of around 4,000 works that contained important German Expressionist works and was looted by the Nazis in the 1930s. After her husband's death in 1931, Tekla Hess toured Europe, selling paintings from the collection to pay her way and sending others to her son Hans, before emigrating permanently to England in 1938. Hans tried to sell some of the paintings after the end of the Second World War but there were no buyers. There was an auction of family paintings at the Marlborough Gallery in 1977 following the death of Hans in 1975 and Lillie in 1976.[1][2]
Anita was educated the Queen Anne Grammar School in York and then read philosophy at University College, London before completing an MA in The History of Ideas at the University of Sussex.[1] In 1974 she married Kevin Halpin who she met at a trade union rally.[1] They have a son, Boris, who is a chef.[2]
Career
Halpin took a junior position in a German publishing company that was arranged through her father's contacts but she did not take to the job. She then returned to London where she edited a medical journal and joined the National Union of Journalists and began to get involved with trade unionism.[1]
In the 1990s she became London district secretary of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) and soon after joined the executive board before being appointed to the unpaid post of chairwoman in 2000. Her nickname there was "Stalin's granny" due to her hardline views.[2] She has also been honorary treasurer for the National Union of Journalists and member of the Trades Union Congress General Council. She stood for election to the London Assembly but was not successful.
Restitution of looted paintings
Halpin has made a number of claims for restitution of paintings looted from her grandfather Alfred Hess by the Nazis in the 1930s.
In 2006, Berlin Street Scene (1913) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, which had hung in Berlin's Brücke Museum,[3] was returned to her as her grandfather's heir. It was subsequently sold at Christie's auction house in New York City for £20.5 million in November 2006.[4]
In 2016, she was successful in her claim to have Nude by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff returned to her legal ownership by the Neue Gallery of New York who had bought it for $800,000 in 1999. The gallery immediately bought it back from Halpin for a price believed to be above $1m.[2]
Halpin has made claims for restitution on a number of other paintings, including The Little Blue Horse (1911) and Cat Behind A Tree by Franz Marc, Barefoot Church I (1924) by Lyonel Feininger, Judgment Of Paris by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 £100m secret of woman they call 'Stalin's granny'. Evening Standard, 18 November 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Communist gets payout for painting stolen by Nazis. David Sanderson, The Times, 30 September 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2017. (subscription required)
- 1 2 Jewish Heirs Want Their Art Back. Michael Sontheimer and Andreas Wassermann, Spiegel Online, 8 November 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
- ↑ Communist Party chair nets £20m in painting sale. Paul Lewis and Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian, 10 November 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2017.