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JEWISH BOOK ANNUAL
quest.”11 T h e auction took place and realized about $1,230,000
in addition to the $900,000 from the private pre-auction sale.
While the sale marked the end o f a hectic period, two matters
continued quietly and then suddenly e rup ted in the press. The
first was the charge by the A ttorney General, h e rea fte r also
re fe rred to as the Plaintiff, tha t Sotheby’s acted with “persistent
fraud and illegality” because the auction house knew “that the
seller could not prove that he owned the books . . . ” and the
related allegation that Sotheby’s misled prospective buyers and
others with false statements in the catalog and in private con
versations.12 The Plaintiff sought to nullify the sale and to have
the books and manuscripts restored to a Jewish institution p e r
form ing functions comparable to those o f the Hochschule. The
Attorney General also accused the seller o f fraud and sought
to prevent him from getting the proceeds o f the sale. The De
fendants, that is, Sotheby’s, the consignor, and technically also
the purchasers, denied the charges.
The o ther unfinished business was the identity o f the con
signor. On August 14, the
New York Times
repo rted on the At
torney General’s lawsuit. In the same article, it revealed that
the Defendants had provided the Plaintiff with an expurgated
affidavit in which the seller (name and o ther identifiers were
deleted) described how he was given ownership o f the books
an d m anu sc rip ts by th e ch a irm an o f the b o a rd o f the
Hochschule. Opposing affidavits by o ther survivors who had
been connected with the Hochschule contradicted the owner
ship claim. In one o f these, H erbert A. Strauss said that he
was convinced tha t “the only person who could have signed
that [expurgated] affidavit was A lexander Gu ttm ann .” Strauss’
affidavit is dated August 3, 1984; its information was made pub
lic on August 14. A few days later, the world learned tha t Strauss
was right.
CONSIGNORS NAMED
G u ttm ann ’s lawyer quickly surfaced with a long memo “To
The News Media,” revealing the Guttmanns as the sellers and
detailing the ir story. He wrote “T h e re is a story breaking out
11. McGill, June 27, 1984.
12. McGill, August 14, 1984.