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
selected works would end up in the museum's collection in no small degree depended upon what the closing results of the auction of the Nemes estate would he. It seemed logical that the greater part of the modern Hungarian paintings, which were preserved in Hungary, would be sold in Budapest, while the rest of the collection (consisting mainly of old paintings, sculptures and applied arts objects) would be sold abroad. In his will Nemes had proposed Berlin and Amsterdam as venues for the auction, however, the committee members finally decided on Munich. The auction, which lasted several days in June 1931, was jointly organised and conducted by three art dealers: Mensing (Amsterdam), Paul Cassirer (Berlin) and Hugo Helbing (Munich). 18 The event was hailed as the sensation of the year and attracted art collectors, art dealers and museum experts from every corner of the world. Local journalists published daily reports on the prices realised at auction. 19 However, the Great Depression, which had begun in 1929, also exerted its effect upon the art trade and mainly because of this the takings from the Munich auction of 1931 fell far short of expectations. Numerous works did not find a market and some important pieces were even withdrawn from the auction by the organisers themselves who hoped to sell them at some later date in more favourable circumstances and thus for a higher price. The auction was finally repeated in November 1933, again in Munich. 20 In light of all of this it is perhaps more understandable why the Museum of Fine Arts was not able to easily obtain the works that had been left to it in the will. For a long time the committee executors of the estate were unwilling to even give their consent for Colijn de Coter's Saint John Lamenting to remain in Budapest since they believed that it would fetch a higher price in Munich. Despite this Petrovics Elek fought tooth and nail to acquire the picture and was all the more motivated because another work originally made for the same altar, Mary Magdalene Lamenting, was already owned by the museum, having been purchased from the Kaufmann Collection at an auction in Berlin in 1917. Petrovics offered 5,000 imperial marks, or 9,000 pengős, for the painting but this bid was at first refused in Munich. After protracted bargaining all that Petrovics was able to achieve was the pre-emptive right of purchase over the work for the museum. 21 The painting finally entered the collection in December 1934, 22 and according to a record in the inventory of the museum's central archives the purchase price was 9,852 pengős. 2 ' In the meantime Elek Petrovics made every effort to acquire the modern Hungarian pictures bequeathed to the Museum of Fine Arts in Nemes's will, although his attempts met with little success. Hungarian and German drafted letters in relation to the affair reveal that the museum director demonstrated the utmost patience by gradually lowering his demands and
