The art dealership of Fritz Schleif was active in Berlin from at least the late 1920s and specialized in Old Master paintings. Today, his name appears primarily in provenance records, historical art journals, and post-war archival documents. The RKD records him as the owner of a painting as early as 1929, while advertisements confirm his activity as an art dealer throughout the 1930s and 1940s.[1]
In 1938, Schleif advertised from Bellevuestraße 10 in Berlin, offering the purchase and sale of “Gemälde alter Meister” (Old Master paintings). A few years later, the dealership was located at Ansbacher Straße 3. Advertisements in the journal Die Weltkunst also reveal a clear interest in seventeenth-century Dutch painting.[2]
Dutch Old Masters
Schleif’s advertisements provide an unusually concrete picture of his trading profile. In 1943 and 1944, he sought high-quality seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, requesting both individual works and complete collections. He presented his business simply as “Fritz Schleif, Gemälde alter Meister”.[2]
This emphasis on Dutch Old Masters is relevant to provenance research. During this period, the Berlin art market was an important international hub through which Dutch and Flemish paintings from private collections, auctions, and other art dealerships were repeatedly bought and sold.
Fritz Schleif during and after the war
After the war, Schleif’s name appears several times in the files of the Central Collecting Point in Munich. These records stem from a complaint he filed in 1947 against an unknown individual after a crate containing paintings disappeared during the war. The documents are of particular interest because they provide some insight into the fate of his art holdings during the final years of the conflict.[3]
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Footnotes
[1] RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, provenance records mentioning Fritz Schleif, Berlin, from 1929 onward; see also historical advertisements in Die Weltkunst.
[2] Die Weltkunst, advertisements for Fritz Schleif, Berlin, 1938–1944. Bellevuestraße 10 is listed as the address in 1938; Ansbacher Straße 3 in 1943–1944. Schleif advertised specifically for seventeenth-century Dutch paintings.
[3] Proveana, Fritz Schleif; documentation from the Central Collecting Point Munich concerning Schleif’s 1947 complaint following the disappearance of a crate containing paintings during the war.