SPEECH BY OLAF LEMKE AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR PAUL LEVI
LONDON 17 NOVEMBER 2008

...In the seventies (of the last century) I met ... Paul for the first time. That was in Berlin. A gentleman in an elegant suit was standing in front of my shop in Eisenacherstrasse. I asked him in. We made our introductions. He, Paul Levi, had come from London. Fifteen years earlier I had been in London - but more of that later. Paul knew who I was. In this area of work everyone knows about everyone else. He wanted to look at frames, old frames. Well, we had plenty to talk about. Old frames, London, the firm of Pollak. And he told me about his four thousand frames. My stock was only half the size. We quickly agreed that I would visit him in London.

That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship which lasted more than thirty-five years. Of course, I wanted to know where Paul Levi came from. His German was too good, without any accent. So, the story had to be one of emigration. And so it was. Paul told me later that in 1935, at the age of sixteen, he had to leave his birthplace, Leipzig, and had travelled to England in order to escape the Nazis. He had foreseen what was about to happen. And I always admired him for that: his courage, his farsightedness, his determination and his decisiveness, escaping the Nazi terror.

Three years later - 1938 - another, then already famous frame dealer form Berlin, fled to London from the Nazis: F.A. Pollak. He had succeeded in saving his frames, and above all also the frame collection of Paul Cassierer, bringing them to London. Pollak became a British citizen and could therefore open his own business. It is fair to say that Pollak revived the frame culture which no longer existed in England, and continued it for decades into the future. Pollak's was the best firm in Berlin and in Great Britain again became the best firm in existence. It still exists. These days it is run by Hans Roeder - who had been trained at Pollak's - and his son Alexander.
Another thing which connected me to Paul Levi was that he and I had both learned the craft of frames at Pollak's, I rather later than Paul.

Another emigrant from Berlin, Hermann Gutmann, came with the Kinderstransports to England and so survived that darkest chapter of German barbarism. He too, who at that time also learned and worked at Pollak's, is a famous man these days. He is the most renowned frame specialist in the USA. A very special story connects me to Gutmann. In 1956 he took a few days off from Pollak for his wedding in New York. He never came back. Pollak advertised in a German art magazine: 'Gilder wanted'. I applied, and was hired. To this day I am grateful to Gutmann that he didn't come back and I got his job. We too are still friends to this day.

Back to Paul Levi. I was fascinated by his knowledge. About art history, about painting - painting of different centuries. I remember the great Titian exhibition in Venice in 1990. We arranged to visit the exhibition together. One could only profit from looking at something of that sort together with Paul Levi. And profit I did. Paul knew every picture, knew exactly from which country it came, even from which museum. Frame specialists have profound discussions about which paintings - in this case by Titian - might still be in their original frames. There were wonderful old frames in the exhibition. But which frames might Titian have designed or chosen himself for his own pictures? Paul came to the conclusion that in this exhibition none of the pictures had its original frame. And what Paul said simply had to be true. In a church which we visited afterwards there were, finally, original frames. That too Paul was able to establish precisely. The evening ended with a wonderful gondola ride.
Another example, this time of Paul's skillful craftsmanship. I was called to participate in a frame discussion at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main. I was supposed to suggest frames for pictures by Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610). The art historians drew my attention to the following piece of background. Paul Levi had made from ebony, and based on a drawing by Elsheimer, a frame which housed twelve small pictures on copper by Elsheimer. Hearing that, I looked very precisely at Paul's construction. It was the highest perfection of craftsmanship.

A few years ago, in 2003, to my great pleasure Paul was in Berlin for a week. I had invited him to the antiques fair ARS NOBILIS. At this fair, Paul Levi met Heinz Berggruen. I had the honour to bring two great, old men together. Very nice photographs were taken on this occasion...

I spoke to Paul almost every week on the telephone. These telephone calls were important for me: the conversation and the contact were never broken off. Also, I came at least once every year to London. Above all to visit Paul Levi. He, Paula and I so enjoyed sitting in the garden. Of an evening Paul often invited us to a restaurant on the Thames, a restaurant which he loved.

These meetings with Paul are unforgettable for me. His humanity, his generosity, his upright character. At 16 he fled the Nazis. Right up to his death he remained steadfast and a man of integrity.

Paul Levi, a great example. For me and certainly also for his children.