In the late 1800s, Jewish cotton mogul James Simon was one of the richest men in Germany, and he loved donating artwork to Berlin museums — thousands of pieces worth more than $20 billion in current U.S. dollars.
Now Bay Area residents and visitors have a chance to view the expansive scope of his contributions in an exhibit at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
The “State Museums of Berlin and the Legacy of James Simon” exhibit displays nearly 140 works, many from ancient Egypt and Babylonia, that Simon gave to various museums throughout pre-war Berlin. It opened earlier this week and will be on display through Jan. 18, 2009.
The exhibit — which also includes classic works by Renoir, Courbet and 15th century Italian master Andrea Mantegna — would never be happening if not for the enthusiasm and diligence of one of Simon’s descendents, 59-year-old San Francisco resident Tim Simon.
Tim is an electronics entrepreneur whose great-grandfather, Edward, was James’ second cousin and business partner. Growing up in Ohio, Tim knew his Jewish ancestors from Germany had gotten rich in the cotton business and were interested in the arts. But he didn’t know anything much beyond that until a few years ago, when he found a collection of letters written by his grandfather, Edward’s son.
Spurred on by that discovery, Tim, his wife, Ann, and their two children traveled to Berlin in 2006 and visited the city’s 16 state museums to hunt for the works his ancestor had donated.
They were amazed to find pieces James had donated in nine of the museums. They left Germany impressed not only with the importance of the pieces, but also with the breadth of the time periods the pieces came from and with the legacy James Simon had left behind.
“We ended up asking the [museum] directors to bring an exhibit to America,” Tim said.
That was easier said than done, but after much legwork and networking, Tim eventually hooked up with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
“Tim called [the works] to our attention,” said Renée Dreyfus, curator of ancient art and interpretation for FAMSF’s museums, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum and the Legion of Honor. “I had only heard the Simon name in connection with the Nefertiti bust” — last year, the Egyptians wanted the ancient piece back, sparking a major controversy — “[and] it was Tim who went on a quest to discover his ancestors.”
Despite the amazing breadth of James Simon’s contributions, as a result of World War II and the division of the city after the war, all he had done was virtually forgotten by the mid-20th century.
Though Simon died before the horrors of the Holocaust took full hold of Berlin, his daughter, Helene, was still living in the city during World War II and was in constant fear for her life. The museum directors of Berlin drafted a letter to high-ranking Third Reich officials asking that she be spared — and she was, said Dreyfus.
It was only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 that modern museum directors began to take notice of Simon’s generous donations of irreplaceable ancient works.
Simon, whose life was detailed in the 2006 book “James Simon: Philanthropist and Patron of the Arts,” also contributed to educational and social facilities such as the Institute for Technology in Haifa, Israel; and in 1901, he founded the Aid Association of German Jews.
Simon could afford to be a philanthropist because his already wealthy Prussian Jewish family increased its fortune by stockpiling cotton in advance of the American Civil War. Simon remained wealthy throughout most of his life, though mounting anti-Semitism and the downward spiral of the Germany economy eventually forced him to sell his business and his home.
“He was an extraordinary individual,” Dreyfus said. “After the wall fell and museums began to take inventory, they realized who the big donors were — he stood out amongst the rest.”
The exhibit, organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in partnership with the National Museums of Berlin, features an eclectic mix of items: ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern, Medieval and Renaissance paintings and European folk art.
Some of the more prominent pieces are an ancient Egyptian bust of Queen Tiy (who lived in the 1300s BCE); a lion relief, taken from the huge Babylonian Ishtar Gate that Simon amazingly brought to Berlin; and a 19th century woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
Perhaps the most stunning piece is a replica of the popular but extremely fragile bust of Nefertiti discovered on a Simon-backed archeological dig in Egypt in 1912.
After Tim’s trip to Berlin two years ago, many of the museum directors he met with agreed that James’ pieces should be shared with the rest of the art world. But they didn’t have the funds to start a traveling exhibition.
Tim and his wife sought the help of FAMSF and also made a personal donation, he says.
“My major objective was to educate Americans about Berlin,” Tim said. “I wanted people to realize it’s a booming cultural capitol. Many people still think of it as Nazi territory or the site where the wall divided the country, [but] I wanted to carry on the family tradition of helping the city of Berlin.”
“State Museums of Berlin and the Legacy of James Simon” runs through Jan. 18, 2009 at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, 100 34th Ave., San Francisco. Tickets: $16-$20, free for 12 and under. Information: www.famsf.org.