Nazi-looted Rothschild Vienna Mahzor to be auctioned at Sotheby’s for up to £5.5m
Six-century-old illustrated High Holiday manuscript, seized in 1938 and misidentified for decades, returns to market after restitution
One of the rarest medieval Hebrew prayerbooks in existence is set to go on sale at Sotheby’s in New York this February, after its restitution to the Rothschild family more than 80 years after it was stolen by the Nazis.
The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor, completed in 1415, is a High Holiday prayerbook used for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Fewer than twenty illustrated Hebrew mahzorim from the medieval period survive today, and only three – including this one – remain in private hands. Sotheby’s has valued it as $5-7 million (£3.9m-£5.5m).
The manuscript was produced in Vienna by a Jewish scribe named Moses son of Menachem. Its layout, script and decorative panels reflect the artistic traditions of Jewish communities in Central Europe at the time. Notes added in the margins over later centuries show how it moved between communities that adapted it to their own Ashkenazi liturgical customs.
In 1842, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild bought the Mahzor in Nuremberg as a gift for his son, Anselm Salomon, and it remained in the Viennese branch of the family for generations.
Following the Anschluss in 1938, the Nazis seized the Rothschild Palais in Vienna while Alphonse and Clarice Rothschild were in England. Their art collection and library were confiscated. While many items were inventoried and distributed to museums or sold, some manuscripts – including the Mahzor – were moved directly into the Austrian National Library without proper documentation. Because it lacked confiscation markings, the book went unnoticed during early restitution efforts.
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Scholars identified its true provenance only in the late 1990s, thanks to the Rothschild coat of arms and the original Hebrew dedicatory inscription added when the family acquired it. In June 2023, Austria’s Art Restitution Advisory Board recommended the Mahzor’s return to the Rothschild heirs.
In a statement, the family said: “While the wrongs of the past can never be undone, the restitution of this Mahzor carries deep meaning for our family as it stands as both an acknowledgement of history and a small measure of closure to a pain that has echoed through generations.”
Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby’s International Senior Specialist for Judaica, said: “The Rothschild Vienna Mahzor stands not only as a major work of medieval Jewish scholarship and art, but also as a symbol of historical perseverance. Its six-hundred-year journey mirrors the broader story of Jewish resilience.”
The Mahzor will be shown at Sotheby’s New York during the Important Judaica exhibition (11-16 December), then in Los Angeles (12-16 January), before returning to New York for display at Sotheby’s new Breuer building headquarters ahead of its auction on 5 February.
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