Arthur Rubinstein Collection seized by the Nazis is donated to The Juilliard School by the late pianist's family

Published Scores and Original Manuscripts Seized from Paris Home in 1940 Were Returned to Heirs in 2006

The family of pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) has donated to The Juilliard School an extensive collection of original manuscripts, manuscript copies, and published editions seized by the Nazis from Rubinstein’s music library in his Paris home and recently restituted by the German government. The 71 items in the collection were returned in May 2006 to the pianist’s four children, Eva Rubinstein, Paul Rubinstein, Dr. Alina Rubinstein, and John Rubinstein, by New York Consul General Dr. Hans-Jürgen Helmsoeth. By the German government’s own admission, it marked the first time that Jewish property kept in the Berlin State Library was restituted to the legal heirs.

The returned items include music by various composers, some works of which are dedicated personally to Arthur Rubinstein. Among the original autograph scores is the manuscript of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Rudepoêma, which was dedicated to Rubinstein, as well as autographs by Germaine Tailleferre, who was a member of the Paris group, “Les Six.”
      
 A small ceremony at Juilliard tonight, October 15, with three of the pianist’s four children present – Eva, Paul, and Dr. Alina Rubinstein – will mark their arrival at Juilliard as The Arthur Rubinstein Music Collection. Also attending the ceremony will be Dutch musicologist Willem DeVries, who aided in the discovery of the Rubinstein ownership. He also is the author of a book about ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg), the Nazi organization aiming for elimination of Jewish cultural life. Similar to plunderers of artwork documented by The Rape of Europa, ‘Sonderstab Musik’ was staffed by high-level German musicologists to locate musical manuscripts, books, and instruments, a specific part of WW II confiscation of Jewish possessions.

In the fall of 1939, Arthur Rubinstein and his family emigrated to the United States just prior to the invasion of Paris by German troops in 1940. In that year, the Nazis confiscated Rubinstein’s property in Paris and moved his private library to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office) in Berlin. By 1947, Rubinstein had returned to Paris, but it was not until 1954 that his Paris home was returned to him. His final years were spent in Paris and Geneva, where he died in 1982.

In 1945, the material from Rubinstein’s library was taken from Berlin to the USSR by the Soviet Army. These 71 items came back to Berlin in the course of a partial return of German cultural assets by the USSR in 1958-59 to the German Democratic Republic. (Other articles from Mr. Rubinstein’s Paris house remain in Russia to this day. Their return seems unlikely given their parliament’s decision to retain such war-time property as rightfully Russian – a vote shockingly chronicled in the recent documentary The Rape of Europa.) The music had been assigned to the Music Department of the Berlin State Library (East) and kept as unprocessed music resources for years. 
       
After reunification of the Berlin collections, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation was given responsibility for the return of the works in 1991. Most of the individual items lacked indications of provenance and could not be identified until recently. References to the Rubinstein items were first discovered by a German group of experts who were researching the fate of cultural assets taken by the Soviet occupying forces during the Second World War in the Glinka Museum in Moscow in 2003. The Dutch musicologist, Willem de Vries, aided in the discovery of the Rubinstein provenance. After it was confirmed that the manuscripts belonged to the estate of Arthur Rubinstein, the Foundation contacted the heirs. 
      
The scores and manuscripts will be part of Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Special Collections and available to scholars and researchers by appointment. Juilliard is also the proud home of the Juilliard Manuscript Collection, which is comprised of 138 items and includes recent headline-making manuscripts sketchbooks, and printed editions with extensive composer markings, acquired anonymously and mostly at auctions by Juilliard’s Board Chairman, Bruce Kovner. Original manuscripts in the Juilliard Manuscript Collection now may be seen online in remarkable high-resolution, versions, at www.juilliardmanuscriptcollection.org. There also is an endowed scholarship in Rubinstein’s name at Juilliard.

Arthur Rubinstein was born in 1887 in Lodz, Poland and performed his first concert at the age of five. He began his musical training in Berlin with Joseph Joachim, who became his mentor. He moved to Paris and from Paris undertook an extensive concert tour of Spain and South America. Rubinstein returned to Europe and continued performing. In 1937, he returned to Carnegie Hall at the height of his career. He moved to Los Angeles and became a United States citizen in 1946, but lived most of his later life in Europe. After the war and the loss of his entire family in Lodz, he dedicated himself to performing publicly in support of the new state of Israel. He continued to perform in his 70s and 80s. Even after going blind, he traveled the world lecturing and teaching. Rubinstein’s book, My Many Years, was published when he was 83 years old. He died in Geneva, Switzerland in 1982. Among his many awards were the French Legion of Honor and the American Medal of Freedom.

 Mr. Rubinstein’s major collection of papers is housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Rubinstein Collection consists of approximately 16,000 items, primarily correspondence, and is available to researchers in the Library’s Music Division (www.loc.gov).

The Juilliard School established this country’s standard for education in the performing arts, beginning with music in 1905. In 1951, its Dance Division was established, with combined training in contemporary and ballet technique. Juilliard became part of Lincoln Center in 1968, and added a four-year Drama program. In 2001, Juilliard broke new ground with its first jazz program, now expanded and including advanced and college curricula. More than 800 young artists, from 49 states (including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia) and 46 foreign countries, attend Juilliard. Among its celebrated alumni are Pina Bausch, Van Cliburn, James Conlon, Miles Davis, Renée Fleming, Kevin Kline, Laura Linney, Lar Lubovitch, Patti LuPone, Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Itzhak Perlman, Leontyne Price, Leonard Slatkin, Kevin Spacey, Paul Taylor, Robin Williams, and many others. For more information, visit Juilliard’s Web site at www.juilliard.edu.