Fritz Wengraf was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Austria) on 14 August 1895. He grew up in a family firmly rooted in the art trade and eventually continued the business. Wengraf, alongside his older brother Paul and mother Rosa, fled to London in 1938 after the Anschluss and re-established their art dealing business in central London as the Arcade Gallery, which ran until 1989.
Art and antique dealer Fritz Wengraf was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Austria) on 14 August 1895. He grew up in a family firmly rooted in the art trade, with his parents and several uncles and cousins actively involved in the business. After completing their education, both Fritz and his older brother Paul chose to carry on the family tradition, pursuing careers in the art world. After the death of his father in 1907, his mother, Rosa, assumed control of the antiques shop located on Seilerstätte in central Vienna, renaming it ‘Wengrafs’ Alexander Witwe’ (Alexander Wengraf’s Widow). By 1924, Rosa was officially recognised as the sole proprietor, with the business listed in the Vienna trade directory as Kunsthandlung R. Wengraf. The young Wengraf became a partner in the enterprise in 1928, and Paul joined two years later. After the Anschluss (Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938), the Wengraf family was compelled to register their business assets in compliance with mandatory Jewish property laws and attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to transfer the business to a sympathetic Aryan successor to manage it on their behalf. Paul Wengraf fled to London in July 1938 (with 72 art objects and seed capital for a new business). Fritz and Rosa soon followed. In March 1939, the company in Vienna was seized by Nazi agent, Alois Smarzari and a former employee, Anton Riha. In 1939, Paul Wengraf established the Arcade Gallery in central London and ran it until 1989.
In 1947, Fritz Wengraf was listed in the The London Gazette as a naturalised British citizen and recorded as an art dealer living at 23 Lyndhurst Road in Hampstead, an area of northwest London in which many German-speaking refugees settled. Fritz Wengraf died in London England in 1965. His son, Alexander Maria Wengraf (c. 1929-1985) was also an art dealer. In the UK public domain, documents relating to Fritz Wengraf's art dealership, such as inventories, stock books and cash books, are held in the National Gallery Research Centre in London. Beyond this, little information is currently available about Fritz Wengraf, with significantly more known about his brother, Paul. The Ben Uri Research Unit welcomes contributions from family members and researchers who may have further insights into Fritz’s life and work.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Fritz Wengraf]
Publications related to [Fritz Wengraf] in the Ben Uri Library