Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1905 Frankfurt, Germany

Died: 1981 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1936

Other name/s: Herbert Normann Bier

Biography

Art dealer Herbert Bier was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany in 1905; the family moved to Berlin after the First World War. Bier's uncle, Z. M. Hackenbroch (1887-1937), a leading art and antiques dealer in Frankfurt, encouraged his nephew's interest in fine art by employing him as an apprentice As part of his apprenticeship Bier studied art and the art market extensively in Europe, living for six months at a time in Paris, Munich, Dresden, Florence and London. He also held assistant positions at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin (1922-23) and at the Alte Pinakotek in Munich (1923-24). Hackenbroch bought a share in the Guelph Treasure ('Welfenschatz': a collection of northern European medieval ecclesiastical art) and Bier gained valuable experience as a porter while the treasure was being catalogued. He became a junior partner in the business in 1929. Following the rise of Nazism in Germany and the passing of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws in 1935, however, he was expelled from the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (State Chamber of Fine Arts) and no longer permitted to work as an art dealer in Germany.

Bier immigrated to London, England in 1936, setting up a branch of his uncle's antique business. Following Hackenbroch's death in 1937, Bier continued running the business independently. He shared his new office in St James's with the Russian art dealer, Vitale Bloch (1900-75); they became close associates, though never business partners. They travelled together in the USA in 1937 and 1939 and Herbert studied museum holdings and meeting curators. In this wasy he wa sable to determine the gaps in museum and private collections. At the outbreak of the Second World War Bier applied to join the British Armed Forces; his application was declined and he was interned as a so-called 'enemy alien' on the Isle of Man under the policy of mass internment, implemented in 1940. He was released after stating on his application that he could 'boost exports as a picture dealer'. Bier subsequently joined the Pioneer Corps in 1942 and two years later served in the British Army, assisting with the interrogation of prisoners of war in Berlin and, later, in London. Although his business languished during the conflict, Bier was able to successfully resurrect it with the help of his wife, Lieselotte Bock, who worked as his secretary (they were married in 1946), and in 1956 he requested compensation for his uncle's confiscated art business from the German claims authorities.

In the postwar period the international connections, which Bier had established previously, began to flourish, and he soon supplied several leading museums in the USA, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and in Australia (via friendship with Mary Woodall, London representative of the National Gallery of Australia). Bier also shared contacts and stock with several colleagues including Old Master drawings expert (and fellow émigré), Edmund Schilling (1888-1974). He sold to many public institutions in the UK, including the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. His archive is now housed in the Wallace Collection, in London. (Bier was a close friend of Sir Francis Watson, director, 1963-74). A former schoolmate, Richard Ettinghausen, also invited Bier, together with émigré art historian, Otto Kurz, to select artefacts for the newly established Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem in the 1960s. Bier was also a keen walker often followed the weekly walks published in the London Evening Standard, under the by-line 'Fieldfare'.

Herbert Bier died in London, England in 1981. His daughter is the award-winning fine art documentary photographer, Marion Davies (b. 1948). She presented a talk on Bier's legacy in February 2020, as part of the Insiders/Outsiders Festival, celebrating the contribution of the Hitler émigrés to British visual culture, and at the Ashmolean in 2026, while Bier's contribution to the British art market was featured in a symposium held by the The International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA) in collaboration with the Courtauld Alumni Association in 2018. Bier was one of the subjects researched by Helena Cuss, as part of a TECHNE doctoral collaboration between Ben Uri Gallery and Museum and Kingston University, investigating émigré art dealers in Britain after the Second World War, which culminated in the exhibition presented at Ben Uri: Cosmopolis: The Impact of Refugee Art Dealers in London (2024). In the UK public domain, a complete archive of Bier's papers concerning purchases and sales of works of art, research on artists and works of art, exporting and importing of goods, sales at auctions, work-related trips, and his emigration from Germany, is held by the Wallace Collection. Throughout his career, Bier was a meticulous record keeper and his archive provides an invaluable resource for provenance research, as well as documenting in detail the racial discrimination he faced in Germany, and his new life in London. His records, as evidenced by the stock cards, show that he sold just under 3000 items in his lifetime.

Public collections

Wallace Collection Archives

Related organisations

Alte Pinakotek, Munich (assistant)
Kaiser Friedrich Museum (assistant)

Selected exhibitions

Cosmopolis: The Impact of Refugee Art Dealers in London, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London (2024)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Herbert Bier]