Tatler, March 2007
Riveting... you couldn't make it up
Daily Telegraph 24th February 2007
Litchfield portrays the Thyssen family as a tribe without taste,
morals or manners... hugely entertaining
morals or manners... hugely entertaining
Economist, March 2nd 2007
Bad blood, bad art... industrial history, art history and good
gossip.
gossip.
Economist, March 1st 2007
Bad blood, bad art... industrial history, art history and good
goosip.
goosip.
Spectator, March 24th 2007
This a remarkable book, a cautionary tale... money does not bring
happiness.
happiness.
Times Literary Supplement, 13th April 2007
The Thyssens make the House of Atreus look cosy
Time Out, 9th May 2007
The most complete story of the Thyssens... An achievement
State of Art, Spring 2007
Litchfield cuts through the smoke an mirrors that disguised the
true source and creation of the 'world's greatest private art collection'
true source and creation of the 'world's greatest private art collection'
Book Description
The Thyssesn liked to give the impression that they became one
of the world's richest industrial dynasties after many years of hard work,
frugality and self-sacrifice. They also claimed to have abandoned Germany
when Hitler came to power and never to have been involved in the
manafacture of arms or the use of slave labour. They encouraged the
acceptance of their identity as both Swiss industrialists and Hungarian
aristocrats who selflessly 'donated' their art collection to Madrid's
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. But the truth is much darker.
of the world's richest industrial dynasties after many years of hard work,
frugality and self-sacrifice. They also claimed to have abandoned Germany
when Hitler came to power and never to have been involved in the
manafacture of arms or the use of slave labour. They encouraged the
acceptance of their identity as both Swiss industrialists and Hungarian
aristocrats who selflessly 'donated' their art collection to Madrid's
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. But the truth is much darker.
Having briliiantly but ruthlessly created one of the world's greatest
industrial fortunes and acquired questionable aristocratic status, Thyssens
profited from both World Wars, financed the Nazis, armed Hitler and were
even personally implicated in a Jewish atrocity.
They avoided the dangers of military conflict by seeking safe-haven in
Switzerland and Argentina, before returning to Germany after the war to
deny their past, re-claim their fortune and re-establish their industrial
power.
They then set about squandering rather than developing the family fortune
and became notable less for their commercial achievements than for their
tax avoidance, alcohol and drug abuse, infidelity, promiscuity, theft,
murder and suicide.
From the Publisher
The Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek has used David Litchfield's The Thyssen Art Macabre as the basis for her new play 'Rechnitz (Der Wuergeengel)'
