The Hatvanys of Hungary

A Dynasty's Entire Artistic Collection Still Missing: More Than 1,000 Treasures Vanished

A three-story, palatial villa stands on one of the many hills of the western banks of the Danube River not too far from Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary. Today, the structure houses the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, but prior to World War II, it was the lavish residence of a branch of the Hatvany family.

The Hatvanys were immigrants of German Jewish ancestry who, beginning in the mid-19th century, took up a variety of enterprises; none more important than sugar production. They grew that particular venture into an agricultural and industrial empire in Hungary, earning the family an aristocratic title for their economic success. Baron József Hatvany-Deutsch purchased the massive villa at Werbőczy uta 7 for his family in 1913, the same year of his death. The baron and baroness had four children: Lili, Endre, Antonia, and Bertalan. Baroness Fanny Hatvany owned an impressive collection of porcelain that was housed in its own dedicated room along with numerous fine paintings that hung amongst the exquisite Baroque and Rococo interiors.

The porcelain collection of Baroness Hatvany in its display cabinets within the family's residence. Photo courtesy of Tony Sundstrom.

Just months after the Hatvanys acquired the house, the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire was plunged into World War I and then successive revolutions until the Kingdom of Hungary was restored in 1920. Members of the family fled to other European nations for safety during the war– some in various disguises, including a lowly worker and the wife of an Italian diplomat.

Many of the Hatvanys returned to the family's Budapest residence after their flight abroad but were again forced to disperse to the United States and England when fears of a second World War became reality. Only Fanny and her eldest son, Endre, remained. They endured the war in the family's residence until 1944, when the property was seized during the Nazi occupation of Hungary and became a billet for Waffen-SS officers. The two were forced to seek refuge with their neighbors, thereby leaving the villa and its contents to an uncertain fate. When Endre and his mother returned to its grounds, it was partially in ruins. He wrote his elder sister, Lili–who by that time was residing in the United States with her sister, Antonia, and daughter, Mariella– November, 1945: "It [the house] is not quite destroyed, but is partly inhabitable...I do not think ever to have the money to build it up again. All that we could dig out from the ruins, is in one room I am living in. All I could do with the house is to put a roof on– which cost me more than I can afford– as I wanted to save the building from falling together completely in consequence of rain and snow." He continues, "The Germans took away everything which was in the house, we have got literally nothing left." The contents of the house, including several collections of fine art, decorative arts, and other cultural objects that had belonged to the baroness and her adult children, were missing.

The exterior of the Hatvany villa located at the Werbőczy utca 7 prior World War II. Photo courtesy of Tony Sundstrom.

Antonia, a naturalized citizen of the United States since November 1935 and resident of Manhattan, hired a local law firm, Riegelman, Strasser, Schwarz & Spiegelberg, after the war to inquire about the missing collections from the family's Budapest residence– especially the porcelain collection, which had been considered one of the best in Hungary. The firm wrote the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) operation on behalf of their client in November 1947, informing the Monuments Men that they suspected all missing objects had been removed and transported to either Germany or Austria when the SS officers were billeted in the residence. The firm then provided the names of six officers who were known to have billeted in the villa during the occupation.

The MFAA launched an investigation and began searching the Munich and Wiesbaden Central Collecting Points for anything belonging to the Hatvanys and conducting interrogations in Bavaria of the named officers they could locate. No Hatvany property was located in the collecting points and Monuments Officers interrogated three of the six officers, including a Gen. George Keppler who had been in charge of the unit billeted on the property. He remembered well the collection of porcelain and told and told the MFAA that as long as he was in charge, which was until spring of 1944, it had remained intact because he had been given orders that no objects were to be removed.

A Sgt. Günther Clasen stated that the porcelain collection was completely intact when he left Budapest in December 9, 1944, and that it had been locked in its display cabinets, which he claims were never opened while he was in the house. Capt. Friedrich Wilcke's testimony was similar to the sergeant's: the collection was untouched when he left on December 23, 1944.

Monuments Man Richard F. Howard, Deputy Chief of the MFAA, wrote the law firm on July 23, 1948, with the results of the MFAA' s efforts: "It is regretted that no object of the Hatvany Collection was found in either the Munich Central Collecting Point or the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point." He added that the conclusion drawn from the interrogations was that the house was looted after the Germans had left Budapest during the Soviet-led invasion.

The family's collection, which comprised a little more than 1,000 pieces total, is still missing to this day. It is suspected to have been seized by Nazi forces and then by advancing Soviet forces.

Tom and Tony Sundstrom and Helga Hatvany– great-grandchildren of Baroness Fanny Hatvany and grandchildren of Lili and Bertalan Hatvany, respectively– are the living heirs to these collections and each holds out hope that their family's prized possessions will be located and returned. With assistance from their legal representatives, they have continued the search by researching the circumstance of loss and posting their family's restitution claims to online registries of cultural objects and works of art still missing since World War II that are accessible to scholars and the public. Ms. Hatvany has even written a memoir on her family's unique history titled Dreams, Nightmares, and Reality: A Family Memoir, which was published in 2022.

The Foundation wishes to thank Tom and Tony Sundstrom and Helga Hatvany for their contributions to this piece. The Hatvany family is included on the Foundation's website listing of restitution claims. For those interested in submitting information concerning an existing restitution claim for cultural objects looted during the Nazi-Era, please forward images and details to wwiiart@mmwf.org. The Foundation also encourages those individuals in possession of artworks or cultural objects with suspected Nazi-Era provenance to contact us at the email address above.