Dr. jur. Siegfried Kantor
Dr. jur. Siegfried Kantor, a successful attorney who had been elected president of the Vienna Bar Association in 1932, was born on March 18, 1881.
Dr. Kantor married Irma Gelbkopf and they resided at Geyergasse 8 in Vienna’s 18th District with their two children Alice and Guido (later changed to Gideon).
The Kantors owned an extensive collection of paintings, drawings, and engravings mainly kept in the family home, some works were displayed at Dr. Kantor’s law firm at Gonzagasse 23 in Vienna’s 1st District.
Otto Reich, a librarian of the Academy of Fine Arts and an appraiser, was appointed to assess the Kantor art collection. His evaluation report was included in Dr. Kantor’s compulsory 1938 asset declaration. The family was unable to export the collection and in 1941 the works were seized and sold by the Gestapo.
After the Anschluss the Kantor family fled to Brünn, Czechoslovakia where they remained until September 1939, when they fled to France. The family immigrated to New York via Cuba in May 1941.