The Legacy of Ludwig Pollack (1868–1943) in the Present-Day Collections: Memories and Artworks from the Metropolitan Museum of New York

Between the 19th and 20th centuries, intellectuals and collectors gathered in new communities that would make exceptional contributions to European culture and museums. Ludwig Pollack, well-known art dealer and archaeologist, remains of fundamental importance. He was a privileged witness of the museology of the early twentieth century, a time during which great powers would found, expand and compete for their museums, true status symbols of power and civilization Pollack was linked to key personalities such as Bode, art historian and curator of the Bode Museum in Berlin, Stroganoff, Russian noble and politician and Morgan, magnate and financier of the Met in New York.

My proposal has a twofold focus:

• The first and foremost aspect I would like to analyze is Pollack`s role in founding the first part of the collection of the MET. He contributed to the acquisition of about 50 pieces, some of which are very famous such as the chariot of Monteleone and other lesser-known to scholars. How were they discovered? Why did the museum acquire them?

• The second aspect to highlight is the legacy of Pollack in the formation of such collections (Met in NY or Bode in Berlin), which was not wholly acknowledged at the time due to the turn of events that its later life took. As he wrote in his private diaries, he did not feel truly integrated into the European context despite his work for the top tier cultural institutions of the time. His contribution to the world of art history will be poorly repaid, so much to the point of becoming one of the too many victims of the Holocaust.

Thanks to unpublished documents, my proposal intends to remember both the man and the art historian, without whom one could not see in museums many of the masterpieces we admire today.