Litchfield, David R.L.

views updated

Litchfield, David R.L.

PERSONAL:

Born in England.

CAREER:

Writer, publisher, journalist, and documentary filmmaker.

WRITINGS:

(In collaboration with Caroline Schmitz) The Thyssen Art Macabre, Quartet Books (London, England), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

David R.L. Litchfield is the author of The Thyssen Art Macabre, in collaboration with researcher Caroline Schmitz. The book tells the story of the Thyssen family, the fortune the family made in steel and war profiteering, and its members' dark past as Nazi collaborators who later amassed an enormous and valuable art collection.

Litchfield originally set out to write a biography of Heini Thyssen, a womanizing alcoholic. In the course of researching this book over fourteen years, the author had unprecedented access to Heini, who proved to be quite candid with the author. Litchfield's research, however, uncovered a story about the entire family that he could not ignore. "Years ago the playboy multi-millionaire Heini Thyssen commissioned David Litchfield to write his biography," noted Richard Davenport-Hines in the London Telegraph. "After many boozy confidential sessions Litchfield completed a hagiography which … he chose not to publish." Referring to the German industrial area along the Ruhr River, Davenport-Hines went on to note that the book Litchfield did decide to write reveals "a great industrial dynasty originating from the Ruhr, who have been collecting offshore trusts, great works of art, expensive ex-wives and rackety reputations for the last century."

Several other reviewers also commented on the open access Litchfield seemed to have to Heini. "Litchfield declares that his role was as Thyssen's confessor," wrote a contributor to the Economist. "He spins an extraordinary tale of great industrial wealth, compulsive acquisition of art, decorated with complicated sub-plots involving serial adultery and divorce." Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, Angus Trumbull noted: "Litchfield's style tends to the sensational, which sometimes renders the unpleasantness of the family portrait it paints almost beyond belief. But the facts as Litchfield presents them are unpleasant enough."

The story begins with August Thyssen, who amassed a vast family fortune and exploited family, friends, and country in the process. He worked primarily in steel but also diversified into coal mining and banking. The family made huge profits from World War I and suffered no financial setbacks for being on the losing side, unlike the rest of Germany. The family continued to raise money through American banks, and the company came under the leadership of August's sons, Heinrich and Fritz. The latter was a Nazi sympathizer who raised money for his friends Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering.

In his book, the author writes of how the Thyssen banking interests moved funds for the Nazis, all the while making money in a booming war economy. Although the Thyssens once again escaped the consequences of being on the losing side, the author uncovers several dark episodes in the family's history during World War II.

In an article in the London Independent, Litchfield points to instances where Heini's relative Margit, and perhaps other family members, staged massacres of Jews for entertainment. He writes of one episode in which Margit hosted a final party as Russian troops approached. "But traditional party entertainment was not enough, and at around midnight some 200 half-starved Jews, pronounced unfit for further work, were delivered by lorry to ‘Kreuzstadel,’ a barn within walking distance of the castle," wrote Litchfield in the Independent article. He describes how Franz Podezin, a Gestapo administrator, "then ushered Margit and 15 of the more senior guests to a store room, gave them weapons and ammunition and invited them to ‘kill some Jews.’ … The prisoners were then forced to strip naked before being shot by drunken guests, who returned to the castle to continue to drink and dance until dawn."

In the article, the author goes on to detail his hunt for the facts in this case and the obstacles he faced along the way. Litchfield writes: "What is remarkable about Margit's complicity in the Rechnitz massacre, is the fact that Germany, despite claims to the contrary, still suffers from a selective memory: only publishing carefully edited versions of the history of the Thyssens, which avoid reference to the family's anti-Semitism."

Following the war, Heinrich Thyssen, a second-generation steelmaker, became Swiss in nationality and began collecting priceless art. He was an extravagant spender, especially on women. He eventually met and married a baroness name Bornemisza and entered into Hungarian nobility. His son, Heini, carried on the tradition, living a lavish lifestyle and collecting one painting a week for many years, ultimately ending up with approximately 1,500 works of art. In his book, Litchfield writes that Heini told him that he was not especially interested in art and once bought a work by the abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock because he was intrigued by how Pollock died in a car crash at the height of his alcoholism.

The author also recounts how the family eventually began living off their inheritance and no longer made much money in the business world. The Thyssen family was now involved in tax evasion and theft, and strains in the family helped lead the way to drug abuse, infidelity, promiscuity, and suicide. Concerning their recent history, the author writes of the family's legal battles to gain control of their companies and their sale of an art collection to Spain for six hundred thousand dollars. However, as noted by Times Literary Supplement contributor Angus Trumbull, the author "makes [it] clear … that a lowering black cloud hangs over many Thyssen paintings, which lack documented provenance in the Nazi period. This ought to be a matter of grave concern for their present owners, as it is for the rest of us who routinely face this moral problem." Nevertheless, Michael Hall noted in Apollo: "Doubts about the quality of what Heini and his father bought are surely resolved by a visit to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Any collection that begins with a panel from Duccio's Maesta, includes Carpaccio's Young Knight, the only autograph painting of Henry VIII by Holbein and Tiepolo's wonderful Death of Hyacinthus is not to be sniffed at."

The Thyssen Art Macabre received several favorable reviews. Adam Zamoyski wrote in the Spectator that "this is a remarkable book, a cautionary tale which should be prescribed reading for anyone who might occasionally feel a twinge of envy as they leaf through the social pages of magazines or ever doubt the wisdom of the proverb that money does not bring happiness." A contributor to the TMFB Web site referred to The Thyssen Art Macabre as a "gripping new book" and "a must for anyone flirting with building an art collection of their own."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Apollo, June, 2007, Michael Hall, "Digging the Dirt: This History of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Family Is Full of Juicy Revelations of Feuds and Infidelities, but It Refuses to Take Seriously Their Art Collecting and Patronage," review of The Thyssen Art Macabre, p. 110.

Economist, March 3, 2007, "Bad Blood, Bad Art; the Thyssens," review of The Thyssen Art Macabre, p. 88.

Independent (London, England), October 7, 2007, David R.L. Litchfield, "The Killer Countess: The Dark Past of Baron Heinrich Thyssen's Daughter," review of The Thyssen Art Macabre.

Spectator, March 24, 2007, "No Redeeming Features," review of The Thyssen Art Macabre.

Telegraph (London, England), February 11, 2007, Richard Davenport-Hines, "A Bitterly Told Tale of Money, Sex and Masterpieces," review of The Thyssen Art Macabre.

Times Literary Supplement, April 13, 2007, Angus Trumble, "A Black Canvas: How the Thyssen Collection Was Built on Profits from War and the Nazis," review of The Thyssen Art Macabre, p. 3.