Wolf Art Collection to be Sold on eBay

September 12, 2004 -- The Fine Art Collection of Julius Wolf is scheduled to be liquidated on eBay over the next twelve months. Mr. Wolf died in 1978 at his New York City Apartment and the bulk of the works in his collection were sold from his estate in 1982 to Mrs. Rose Vagavich of Michigan who in turn sold the collection to Mr. Heinrich Schwab and an anonymous associate in 1997-8. It is reported that the collection upon dispersion from Rose Vagavich contained nearly 2,800 works.

Mr. Julius Wolf managed in the most natural and uncontrived manner to combine within himself a number of apparently irreconcilable qualities.

For more then two and a half decades he had enjoyed the advantages of a significant fortune and put his money to use in a variety of ways, some of which must be enumerated. First, Julius acted as a premier host who reigned throughout New York and East Hampton, especially during the 1960's and 70's. Wolf always shown with equal luster whether it be at a luncheon at which one sat down six or at a dinner gathering of twenty-five or more persons. To both he always brought his special quality of enjoyment.

In Julius' latter years, he placed himself comfortably at his New York City apartment on the upper east side where he would recline at a campaign chest used by Napoleon while the guests of his many gatherings would join him resting upon common stools to carry on brief conversation and then filter past… This was truly an activity that was representative of the social status the Mr. Wolf had achieved in his life.

Social life, the gathering together at East Hampton, New York of acquaintances and friends, at which he was so adept and which obviously gave him such pleasure to the very end was just one side of his personality. He was no tiger hunter; the guests were chosen for no other reason then that he wanted to see them and have warm friendships, some of so many years standing.

Mr. Wolf was not spoiled by the high standards he set himself. He delighted in going out to a simple luncheon or dinner; he would whole heartedly praise a dish if it were well prepared and thus earned the respect and affection of those who had cooked and served the meal. To such a simple event he contributed all the enthusiasm and sense of pleasure which were so much a part of him.

The fact that his fortune had been primarily gifted to notable and obscure charities throughout the world by the end of his life not mention the bequest of nearly 95 fully authenticated masterworks to the Hood Museum at Dartmouth (his alma mater) endows him with a type of post humus existence, furthering for the foreseeable future some of the aims to which he devoted himself.

Wolf's circle included of course the literary and artistic society of the day such with such members as Willem De Kooning, Elaine de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Josef Albers,Ian Hornak, John Ferren, Adolph Gottlieb, Lester Johnson, Joan Mitchell, Alfonso Ossorio, Ray Parker, Fairfield Porter, Saul Steinberg, Jack Youngerman, Andy Warhol, Ben Burns, Lowell Nesbitt, Hans Hofmann, Louis Nevelson, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, Robert Indiana, Phillip Barry, Truman Capote, Leonard Bernstein, Elmer Bernstein, Virgil Thompson, and David Smith among many others.

As a lover of the arts, including literature, music, and the theater, he was outstanding; also as a collector.

Julius Wolf's love of works of art, and joy in buying these delectable objects, was a passion, which remained with him, although fully aware of his unstable heath, to the very end of the days of this truly remarkable and generous human being.





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