Ludwig Pollak

Ludwig Pollak (Prague 1868-Auschwitz 1943), born in Prague and Roman by adoption, was a preeminent archaeologist, a fine connoisseur and an art dealer between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. His mother’s family, descendent from Sephardic Jews living in Prague for centuries, had a preeminent role in Ludwig’s cultural and religious education so that, at the end of his studies, he became a professional skilled in many activities related to a deep and passionate knowledge of works of art belonging to different periods, from the Greek and Roman antiquity until the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and beyond. Thanks to his uncommon connoisseurship Ludwig Pollak was entrusted to write several catalogues of prestigious private collections – the Nelidow (1903) and Stroganoff (1912) collections above all- and to buy and sell different kind of works of art to some of the richest collectors and most influential museums’ directors of his time, such as J. P. Morgan and Wilhelm Bode. At the same time Pollak collected several precious objects for his private collection, including ancient and medieval sculptures, terracotta bozzetti of the greatest Italian masters of the Baroque and hundreds of Old Masters drawings, still circulating among today’s art market.
Ludwig Pollak was a very passionate collector of drawings of the Baroque era and he shared his enthusiasm in this field with the young Denis Mahon, with whom he had an intense correspondence between 1936 and 1937. The deep experience and artistic knowledge of the archaeologist were not able to save him and his family from the Nazi-fascist deportation from the Rome ghetto on 16th October 1943. A part of the precious objects of his private collection saved from the last auctions’ sales were donated to the Municipality of Rome in 1951 and 1958 by the last Pollak’s heir Margarete Süssmann Nicod, his second wife’s sister.

Between the 19th and 20th centuries, intellectuals and collectors gathered in new communities that would make exceptional contributions to European culture and museums. Ludwig Pollack, the well-known art dealer and archaeologist, remains of fundamental importance. He was a privileged witness of the museology of the early twentieth century, a time during which great powers would found, expand and compete for their museums, proper status symbols of power and civilization. Pollack was linked to critical personalities such as Bode, art historian and curator of the Bode Museum in Berlin, Stroganoff, a Russian noble and politician and Morgan, magnate and financier of the MET in New York.

Published annually, Ars Judaica is a peer-reviewed publication on Jewish visual culture. It showcases the Jewish contribution to the visual arts and architecture from antiquity to the present from a variety of perspectives, including history, iconography, semiotics, psychology, sociology, and folklore. It is a valuable resource for art historians, collectors, curators, and all those interested in the visual arts.

L’OSSESSIONE PER L’ANTICO
Sigmund Freud e Ludwig Pollak
tra ebraismo, archeologia e collezionismo

a cura di
Roberta Ascarelli e Orietta Rossini 


"Da Pollak a Freud, da Roma a Vienna: lo studio del collezionismo si intreccia con la nascita della psicoanalisi, alla luce di un incontro in cui lo stesso Freud si trova ad essere al contempo esaminatore ed esaminato. A Pollak e Freud e al loro condiviso interesse rivolto al passato sono dedicati gli interventi raccolti in questo volume, esito del convegno L'ossessione per l'antico tenutosi a Roma nell'aprile del 2019".

This essay focuses on the international Art Market in Rome, exploring the complex relationships between dealers, collectors and connoisseurs around 1900. Drawing from unpublished material dating from the 1880s to 1914, this essay presents a picture of the global art business in the newly elected capital of Italy, showing how this art market was as important as Florence and Berlin. The central role of the Eternal City in the emerging global art market is outlined  through an analysis of Wilhelm von Bode and Stefano Bardini's networks in Rome. The revival of their relationships with characters like artist-dealer Attilio Simonetti and archeologist Ludwig Pollak provides an engaging view of this unique time. This examination shows how the role of the dealer, the agent and the connoisseur were highly interconnected even when acting in different capacities.