Kann, Alphonse

Biography

Alphonse Kann was a near relation of collectors Rodolphe [d. 1905] and Maurice [died c. 1907] Kann, whose had established themselves in Paris in the nineteenth century. Kann, a British citizen originally from Austria, was trained as a banker but became an art collector and dealer in pre-World War I Paris. He gathered and dispersed a succession of collections, including old master paintings, antiquities, decorative arts and impressionist paintings. A large sale, primarily of decorative arts, from the Kann collection was held at the American Art Association in New York in January 1927. During World War II a large portion of the Kann collection was confiscated by the Nazis. Kann himself fled to London, where he died in September 1948. A number of paintings which had been confiscated from his collection were recovered in Switzerland and returned to his heirs in 1949.

Bibliography

1986

Hahnloser-Ingold, Margrit. "Collecting Matisses of the 1920s in the 1920s," in Matisse: The Early Years in Nice. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986: 243-244.

1989

Les Donateurs du Louvre. Paris, 1989:240

1998

Buomberger, Thomas. Raubkunst Kunstraub: Die Schweiz und der Handel mit gestohlenen Kulturgütern zur Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Zurich, 1998:119-120.

2001

Francini, Esther Tisa, Anja Heuss and George Kreis, Fluchtgut-Raubgut: Der Transfer von Kulturgütern in und über die Schweiz 1933-1945 und die Frage der Restitution. Zurich, 2001:384-385.

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