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

VANISHING HOPES: THE LAST WILL OF MARCELL NEMES THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS' ACQUISITIONS FROM THE NEMES ESTATE ISTVÁN NÉMETH Marcell Nemes of Jánoshalma (1866-1930), or as he was known abroad Marczell von Nemes, had close ties with the Museum of Fine Arts for decades thanks to his activities as a collector and patron.throughout his life he donated a whole series of valuable works of art to the institution and exhibitions were organised in the Museum of Fine Arts displaying selected pieces from his private collection in 1909 and 1910.

2 The marchand amateur, who became a legend in his own lifetime, was in close contact with Simon Meiler, Gábor Térey, Elek Petrovics, and other people at the museum. Although Nemes purchased a house in the Bavarian capital as early as 1918 and effectively resided in Munich from the early 1920s, he never broke off his ties with his homeland and indeed his most important donations are linked to this period: in 1921 he donated El Greco's painting entitled The Penitent Mary Magdalene, then in 1925 the Portrait of Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II by Adám Mányoki, which is revered as a national relic in Hungary.' In a letter of October 1921 to the minister of culture Elek Petrovics, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts at the time, intimated that "...Nemes has no family, and is extraordinarily ambitious with a desire for his name to be immortalised, moreover, he is a capable man possessing grand ideas and it is not unlikely that he will truly act upon what he has stated many times i.e. that he will pass on the greater part of what he has acquired and will acquire to the Hungarian state..."

4 This outstanding collector must have really thought matters through seriously or at least this was implied when in the spring of 1925 he personally brought the famous portrait of Rákóczi from Munich to Budapest, declaring that after his death he wished to leave his whole collection to Otto von Habsburg and the Hungarian state. This sensational announcement was reported by several foreign newspapers at the time.

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