Judaica Collection Finds a Home

Much of the contested collection of rare Hebrew books and manuscripts whose 1984 auction was recalled, has at last found a home in an independent, nonprofit organization created by leading Jewish institutions. This will permit a legal entity to attend to the custody of this library. The Judaica Conservancy Foundation was created for the specific purpose of allowing the materials to be used for the benefit of the public.

New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams, who intervened two years ago to block the sale through Sotheby’s here of the disputed Judaica until it ownership could be properly determined, announced last week that the religious material will be turned over to the Foundation. Foundation member institutions include the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Yeshiva University in New York; Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati; the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Leo Baeck Institute in New York and Leo Baeck College in London.

The materials are to be given to the foundation under a court order signed by Justice Robert White of the State Supreme Court, to be kept in perpetuity.

The plan was submitted in July by the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization, which was established after the war by American Military Government Law No. 59, in order to recover masterless property of Jews who had been killed or Jewish institutions which had been dissolved by the Nazis.

BACKGROUND OF A DISPUTE

The disputed Judaic books and manuscripts were consigned to Sotheby’s for sale more than two years ago by a party who at the time remained anonymous. The material, which was thought to have been destroyed by the Nazis, belonged to the College for the Scientific Study of Jewish Culture, a rabbinical seminary in Berlin.

Investigations by an expert in the field revealed the seller to be Dr. Alexander Guttmann, then professor emeritus at Hebrew Union College. Guttmann, who subsequently acknowledged his involvement in the sale, claimed that he had been given the books to smuggle into the United States in 1940 and that he did so at “considerable personal risk.” The material includes a 15th-century book of philosophy by Maimonides, and 13th- and 15th-century Commentaries on the Pentateuch.

The books remained unknown in the home of Guttmann until April 1984, and Sotheby’s conducted the auction in June of that year, which-brought in $1.45 million. Attorney General Abrams subsequently sued Sotheby’s, saying that the manuscripts were never Guttmann’s to sell.

Sotheby’s agreed to recall the materials in an out-of-court settlement in July 1985 and to redistribute them to institutions where they would be available to the public. The monies paid for them were placed in an escrow account, and Guttmann received compensation of $900,000 from a private donor who remains anonymous. Guttmann was dismissed from his position at Hebrew Union College in August 1985.

David Fishlow, a spokesman for Abrams, said that 17 objects from the collection either have been returned or are in the process of being returned. Five pieces, however, are objects of further negotiations, he said, as they are not under the jurisdiction of New York State. This would indicate that the parties who purchased them at the Sotheby’s auction do not live in New York and might be outside the United States, making legal procedures more complicated.

Not all the books sold at the auction were ordered returned under the settlement. The money taken in from the sale of the other books–about $850,000–is to be given to the Foundation, which will use it to acquire additional rare Jewish volumes.