Anita E. Halpin (born April 1944) is an English communist and trade union activist of German-Jewish descent who has been successful in having paintings returned to her that were looted by the Nazis from her grandfather, Alfred Hess, in the 1930s. Several works, such as ''Berlin Street Scene'' (1913) by

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German Expressionism, expressionist Painting, painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expr ...

and ''Nude'' by

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke. Life and work Schmidt-Rottluff was born in R ...

, have been returned to her and subsequently sold; the former sold at auction for £20.5 million to the

Neue Galerie New York The Neue Galerie New York ( German for "New Gallery") is a museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design located in the William Starr Miller House at 86th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. Established in 2001, ...

, which also paid over £1 million to Halpin for ''Nude''.

Early life and family

Anita E. Hess was born in April 1944, in

New End Hospital New End Hospital was a hospital in Hampstead, north London. It was founded in 1869 as the infirmary for the Hampstead Union workhouse, and operated until 1986. The buildings have now been redeveloped as housing. History New End Hospital was foun ...

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, London. Her father was Hans Hess, assistant curator at the former Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, who emigrated to England in 1933 via a Canadian internment camp. Her mother was Lillie Ester Hess (née Williams), an engineer's clerk with a German grandfather (on her father's side). They met through Jewish friends and were both described as being on the political left. Anita was an only child.£100m secret of woman they call 'Stalin's granny'.
''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'', 18 November 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2017.Communist gets payout for painting stolen by Nazis.
David Sanderson, ''The Times'', 30 September 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2017. Her grandfather was the German-Jewish Alfred Hess, a shoe manufacturer in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

,Jewish Heirs Want Their Art Back.
Michael Sontheimer and Andreas Wassermann, ''

Spiegel Online ' () is a German news website. It was established in 1994 as ''Spiegel Online'' as a content mirror of the magazine ''Der Spiegel''. In 1995, the site began producing original stories and it introduced ''Spiegel Online International'' for artic ...

'', 8 November 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2017. whose factory was Aryanised after 1933, who with his wife Tekla (1884–1968), née Pauson, had an art collection of around 4,000 works that contained important

German Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

works and was looted by the Nazis in the 1930s. After her husband's death in 1931, Tekla Hess toured Europe, selling paintings from the collection to pay her way and sending others to her son Hans, before emigrating permanently to England in 1938. Hans tried to sell some of the paintings after the end of the Second World War but there were no buyers. There was an auction of family paintings at the

Marlborough Gallery Marlborough Fine Art was founded in London in 1946 by Frank Lloyd and Harry Fischer. In 1963, a gallery was opened as Marlborough-Gerson in Manhattan, New York, at the Fuller Building on Madison Avenue and 57th Street, which later relocated in ...

in 1977 following the death of Hans in 1975 and Lillie in 1976. Anita was educated at the Queen Anne Grammar School in York and then read philosophy at

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

before completing an MA in The History of Ideas at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

. In 1974 she married Kevin Halpin who she met at a trade union rally. They have a son, Boris, a chef who is the father of two children.

Career

After her schooling, Halpin took a junior position in a German publishing company that was arranged through her father's contacts but she did not enjoy being in the country. She returned to London where she edited a medical journal, joined the

National Union of Journalists The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union supporting journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The NUJ was founded in 1907 and has 20,693 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Trades ...

, and began to get involved with trade unionism, causing her political beliefs to harden. In the 1990s she became London district secretary of the

Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and su ...

and soon after joined the executive committee before being elected as the national chairwoman in 2000. Her nickname there was "Stalin's granny" due to her hardline views. She has also been honorary treasurer for the

and member of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...

General Council. In 1978 she stood in the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council Election in the Limehouse ward but was not successful, receiving 93 votes. In 2000 she stood for the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds supermajority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject t ...

but also failed to be elected.London and Local Elections 2000.
BBC News, 2000. Retrieved 5 September 2017. In 2006 she was the chair of the Communist Party of Britain.

Restitution of looted paintings

Halpin has made a number of claims for

restitution Restitution and unjust enrichment is the field of law relating to gains-based recovery. In contrast with damages (the law of compensation), restitution is a claim or remedy requiring a defendant to give up benefits wrongfully obtained. Liability ...

of paintings that were looted from her grandfather, Alfred Hess, and his widow Tekla, by the Nazis in the 1930s. In 2006, ''Berlin Street Scene'' (1913) by

, which had hung in Berlin's

Brücke Museum The Brücke Museum in Berlin houses the world's largest collection of works by members of the group ''Die Brücke'' ("The Bridge"), an early 20th-century German expressionist movement. Collection Opened in 1967, it features around 400 painti ...

, was returned to Halpin as her grandfather's heir. It had been purchased by the museum using public funds, and had hung there for 26 years, where it was described as "one of Kirchner's best ever works," "one of the most important expressionist German paintings," and the "cornerstone" of the museum's collection. The restitution followed negotiations begun two years earlier, in September 2004, between Halpin and Berlin. Although efforts were made to keep the painting within the city, "financial constraints" prevented such an outcome. The painting was subsequently sold at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

auction house in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

for £20.5 million in November 2006; it stayed in the city, being purchased by the

.Communist Party chair nets £20m in painting sale.
Paul Lewis and Charlotte Higgins, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 10 November 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2017. In 2016, she was successful in her claim to have ''Nude'' by German expressionist

returned to her legal ownership by the Neue Galerie New York who had bought it for $800,000 in 1999. It was said to have disappeared from Halpin's grandmother's storage at the Cologne Art Association in 1939, after she fled Germany. The Neue Galerie immediately bought it back from Halpin for a price believed to be above $1 million. Halpin has made claims for restitution on a number of other paintings by German expressionists, including ''The Little Blue Horse'' (1911) and ''Cat Behind A Tree'' (''Katze hinter einem Baum (Kinderbild)'') by

Franz Marc Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916) was a German painter and printmaking, printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider), a journal whose ...

, held by the

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (, "State Gallery") is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie (''New State Gallery'') designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial galler ...

and

Sprengel Museum Sprengel Museum is a museum of modern art in Hanover, Lower Saxony, holding one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building situated adjacent to the Masch Lake () approximately south of the state m ...

respectively; ''Barefoot Church I'' (1924) by

Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger (; July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1887 h ...

, also held by the Staatsgalerie; and ''Judgment Of Paris'' (1913) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, held by the Wilhelm Hack Museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halpin, Anita 1944 births Living people British communists English journalists British trade unionists Communist Party of Britain members Communist Party of Great Britain members Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress People from Hampstead English women trade unionists English people of German-Jewish descent Alumni of University College London Alumni of the University of Sussex Presidents of the National Union of Journalists