Precious Hungarian art treasures stay in America

The collection of Nancy Goodman Brinker, the former American ambassador to Hungary, stays in America: the Hungarian state does not want to buy it anymore. Yet, her collection based on Hungarian paintings contain many significant painters’ works, such as Szinyei, Aba-Novák and László Fehér. According to artists, it is not so bad if the Hungarian works stay abroad, they simply enlarge the agio of Hungarian art, reports 24.hu.

Not long ago Heti Válasz made a list of those collections of art which got back to the Hungarian state during the past years or decades. However, a loose end has remained: Nancy Goodman Brinker’s collection of Hungarian pieces of art – Brinker was the United States’ ambassador to Budapest between 2001 and 2003. In 2015 the government decided to buy the collection containing mainly Hungarian paintings for 5.5 million USD (4.4 million EUR).

Even an edict was created about it, which Viktor Orbán signed. Four ministers had to work on it. Mihály Varga’s task was to provide the sources which enable the state to buy and take the collection home. Miklós Seszták and János Lázár had to make the contract, while Zoltán Balog was responsible for finding the location of the permanent exhibition.

This location would have been the De la Motte – Beer Palota in Buda Castle. 1.6 million EUR has been set apart for the building’s renovation, while another 32 thousand EUR a year for ten years for the exhibition itself. However, the collection hasn’t come back since then, but nobody verified the fact that the plan would not work.

As János Lázár was responsible for the negotiations, 24.hu asked the portfolio about the collection. They have replied that “the Hungarian State withdrew the purchase”. They have explained their decision saying that the seller, Brinker, “does not want to sell the whole collection which was the basis of the original negotiations”. (But the question still stands whether the state did not want to buy some pieces of the collection.)

It has also turned out from the reply that the renovation of the protected monument De la Motte – Beer Palota (belonging to the state but being under the property management of Budavári Ingatlanfejlesztő és Üzemeltető Nonprofit Kft.) is cancelled, but it will operate as an exhibition hall in the future. The building used to belong to Forster Központ, which was responsible for heritage conservation, but has been closed.

These paintings stay in America

The collection is significant, as we’re talking about the protected paintings of Mihály Munkácsy, Vilmos Aba-Novák, Róbert Berény, Béla Czóbel, József Rippl-Rónai, Lajos Gulácsy, László Moholy-Nagy or contemporary painters such as Ilona Keserü, Imre Bak, László Fehér and El Kazovsky. One of the most precious pieces is the Portrait of Ilona Batthyány by János Vaszary, but the main part of the collection contains paintings from the first half of the 20th century. (Vg.hu has an article about the history and pieces of the collection itself.)

Magyar Narancs cites a catalogue, according to which the number of art treasures in Brinker’s collection is 30-40, Attila Ledényi – owner of Art Market – thinks this number is 150, while the sources of 24.hu believe it is around 100. Later, the former ambassador got interested in photos as well, so now she owns some of André Kertész’s works, but statues can be found in the collection too.

The article mentions a Hungarian exhibition in Boca Raton (Florida), which has been over since then. It closed on 8th January and displayed parts of Brinker’s collection. Some pieces were also exhibited in 2013 at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Of course, the collection is not full of the most outstanding pieces of Hungarian art. 24.hu states there are a number of paintings in the collection which later stopped being protected.

How did the collection evolve?

Brinker became ambassador in September 2001, but due to the terrorist attacks in the United States, she could come to Hungary late. As a result, they postponed their tradition (Art in Embassies) going on since 1964: they decorate American embassies throughout the world with contemporary American paintings. This is why Brinker made a collection of Hungarian paintings (even László Fehér painted a portrait of Brinker in 2004). She remained consequent later on, as in 2011 she became the patron of Art Market and the messenger of the American collectors and the Hungarian artists.

It is known that there are only a few foreign collectors specialized in Hungarian works. According to art historian Péter Molnos, there are about three such collectors and one of them is Brinker. One of the main reasons for this is that before the democratic transformation almost all the significant paintings were protected and they could not be taken out of the country. Then as the Hungarian collector market strengthened, more and more paintings stopped being protected. It was really good because this way the world could see the Hungarian art and Hungarian painters could get higher international opinion. Brinker agreed with this and thought Hungarian art has to be shown to the world. Brinker’s collection contains such paintings that are not protected any longer, so she took the paintings legally out to the United States.

István Rozsics – who died since then – helped her building the collection. Brinker herself said so in the interview with MúzeumCafé in 2010. It is a telling story of how she first met the painting of Vilmos Aba-Novák about New York. This is how she told the story:

Our meeting is somewhat memorable. I had been living in Budapest for two months and on a chilly day in November we were walking in Falk Miksa street with István Rozsics, watching the shop-windows. Suddenly a landscape of New York appeared. I stopped there and could not escape the view. I saw the city bearing the tragedy on a water-coloured painting made in 1935, standing calm, monumentally and sublimely. The view unsettled me. Such as the lack.

Since then she frequently visits Budapest, goes from gallery to gallery, visits her painter friends’ studios and looks for the Hungarian paintings of foreign auction houses.

Government wanted a friendly gesture

Many articles emphasize that Brinker did not have a good relationship with the first Orbán-government, she did not like the antisemitism, thus Orbán was not welcome in Washington then. According to the gossips, this is why the Hungarian government wanted to flatter the still influential business woman by buying the collection in 2015. The art treasures would have belonged to the Hungarian National Gallery.

Featured image: facebook / Nancy G. Brinker

Source: 24.hu