The Vanished Paintings of Csontváry, Gulácsy and Schiele
Hardly a Trace Left of the Neményi Collection
Bertalan Neményi was a significant Hungarian art collector between the two World Wars, although little was known about him either by his contemporaries or succeeding generations. Although a few artworks owned by the lawyer who shunned publicity were displayed at some exhibitions, most items in his collection were hidden from the public, since no information was published about them, either in professional or other journals. Only an inventory listing his artworks, which disappeared at the end of the war, and some old exhibition catalogues give some idea about his collection. His career can be described only in fragments due to the few available documents. Bertalan Neményi, the first child in a Jewish family, was born in Budapest on 24 July 1892. His father Dezső Neményi (born Neumann) was an auditor for the Hungarian Royal Defence Ministry when he married Olga Goldberger in 1891. A few years later he left the service and became a director of the Oil Refinery Plant in Fiume. Bertalan took his final examinations at Fiume’s state grammar school in 1908 and the following year enrolled in Budapest’s University of Law. For years he had a private practice, then from 1928 he began working at the legal department of one of Hungary’s largest companies, the United Light Bulb and Electric Co., of which he later became the director. Due to his origin he was removed from the register of lawyers in June 1944. During the reign of the Arrow Cross he had to leave his job, but after the war he returned to the company in his post as director. In February 1947 he and the company’s two CEOs went on a business trip to New York. Although tensions because of Hungarian domestic and foreign politics hindered negotiations, by the end of June he had managed to complete a preliminary contract between the United Electric Co. and General Electric. Later he was suddenly taken ill and was found dead in his hotel room the following day, 7 November 1947. At the beginning of 1944, Neményi deposited a large part of his collection in the Hungarian General Credit Bank. The vault survived the bombing and street battles, but the Russians broke in and took away the art treasures. As early as 19 March 1945 Neményi wrote a letter to the director of the Museum of Fine Arts asking for help in finding his artworks, which included 98 paintings, some 350 works of graphic art and 2000 books. Neményi reported his expropriated artworks to several authorities, yet a detailed inventory of them can be found only in the 1948 records of the Ministerial Commissioner of
Endangered Private Collections. The collector did not deposit all his paintings in the bank, but there is no available information about where.