Art Patronage and Philistinism in Argentina: Maurycy Minkowski in Buenos Aires, 1930

In August 1930 the Polish-Jewish painter Maurycy Minkowski arrived in Buenos Aires for a well-publicized but commercially unsuccessful exhibition of his artworks. Minkowski's exhibition coincided with the onset of the Great Depression, a military uprising, and a roundup of Jewish procurers associated with the Sociedad Zwi Migdal. Both before and after his accidental death (and "celebrity funeral") in November 1930, his patrons--who included the ambassador from Poland and prominent Jewish cultural figures--denounced what they regarded as the philistinism of Jewish parvenus in Argentina. As memory of the artist lapsed into obscurity, his supporters established the Museo Minkowski, housing it in the Argentine Jewish community building (AMIA). The salvage of this collection from the ruins of the AMIA, following the July 1994 terrorist bombing, has set the stage for the rehabilitation of this neglected artist's reputation.