Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)
ISTVÁN NÉMETH: Vanishing Hopes: The Last Will of Marcell Nemes - The Museum of Fine Arts' Acquisitions from the Nemes Estate
However, events soon took an unexpected turn. It is not possible to know exactly why, perhaps it was because of financial problems that had developed in the meantime or because of other business considerations, but whatever the reason Nemes began negotiations with American museums in 1927, announcing that should an amicable price be agreed upon, he would be willing to sell his entire collection to them. The role of intermediary between the Hungarian collector and J. C. Nichols from Kansas City was played by M. Gösset working for a French institute called Société des Promenades-Conferences, as well as by FrankJewett Mather, a professor at the University of Princeton. 6 In the summer of 1927 Mather wrote several letters urging a speedy conclusion to the affair, emphasising that if Kansas City were to succeed in obtaining the Nemes Collection, the collection of its museum would rival that of the Chicago Art Institute. Although Nichols travelled to Munich in 1928 to personally examine the Nemes Collection in the company of J. J. Vasselot, the conservator of the Musée Cluny and the Louvre, the negotiations that dragged on for almost a year finally met with no success.' Following this, in November 1928, Marcell Nemes put a substantial portion of his collection up for auction in Amsterdam. 8 In addition to valuable miniatures, Italian bronze statuettes, pieces of Limoges enamels and Flemish tapestries some outstanding paintings also went under the hammer, including Lucas Cranach the Elder's The Judgement of Paris (presently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Francisco de Goya's Don Francisco Saavedra, a portrait of the finance minister (presently in The Courtauld Institute, London), El Greco's The Immaculate Conception (presently in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid), Jacob van Ruisdael's Three Great Trees in a Mountainous Landscape with a River (presently in The Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, California) and G. D. Tiepolo's The Crucifixion (presently in the Boijmans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam). 9 Even after these works were sold, Marcell Nemes's collection was still of substantial value and indeed from 1929-1930 he augmented his collection with significant new works. Following Nemes's sudden death on 28 October, 1930 Elek Petrovics remained convinced that the generous patron —true to his earlier promises —had really left his entire collection, or at least a significant part of it, to the Hungarian state and the Museum of Fine Arts. On the very next day, on 29 October, Kuno Klebelsberg, the minister of culture, declared Marcell Nemes to be one of the nation's dead, without waiting for the reading of Nemes's will. 10 In the meantime the will was found in a safe in Nemes's apartment at 10 Leopold Strasse in Munich. The reading of the will took place on 30 October in the presence of a lawyer, Dr. Gyula Bartha, and the Hungarian consul in Munich, László Velics. 11
