A Whiff o' Whodunit: The Saint Louis Art Museum Unveils its Shady History

Nestled in the verdant embrace of Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, you'll find the Saint Louis Art Museum, a veritable treasure trove of art and more than just trinkets. With a whopping 34,000 pieces under its roof, it offers a visual smorgasbord of artistic creations spanning eons. But it’s the husband-wife drama of its history that has folks titillated, with tales of questionable acquisitions and behind-the-scenes intrigue. The museum can trace its lineage back to the year 1879, when it first bloomed as a part of Washington University, born from the affluent aspirations of Wayman Crow, a local business tycoon and politico.

The initial museum, erected in his junior son's name, stands as a living testament to the imagination and cunning of Wayman Crow Jr. The museum's director, Halsey Ives, oversaw both art instruction and the burgeoning collection of artwork. A major turning point for the museum came when it moved to Cass Gilbert's Palace of Fine Arts building for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. This relocation swelled the museum's collection considerably and raised its profile in the art world.

Alas, not all was smiles, as legal wrangles erupted over independence from its university roots. One more curious acquisition involves Max Beckmann’s ‘Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery’. The painting, although a masterpiece, has a scandalous past. It was once part of a larger collection that was purloined by the Nazis, branding it as 'degenerate art'. The painting eventually found its way to SLAM through a series of, well, less than above-board transactions, thanks to art dealer Curt Valentin.

Yet another captivating piece is Henri Matisse’s ‘Bathers with a Turtle’, which joined the museum's collection at the Galerie Fischer auction held in the Grand Hôtel National, Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 30, 1939, mere years after the kickoff of WWII.This acquisition, too, caused a stir.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons