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„Es  IST  IMMER  DIESELBE  MELANGE“

SUMMARY
“It  is  always  the  same  mixture”
The  Antique  Dealer  Salomon  Weininger  and  Vienna  Counterfeiting
in  the  Age  of  Historicism
Since  the  often-quoted  1974  essay  by  J.  F.  Hayward,  Salomon  Weininger,
who  was  born  in  Hradisch  (Hradiste,  modern  Slovakia)  in  1822  and
worked  in  Vienna,  has  been  suspected  as  the  man  behind  almost  every
Vienna  forgery  produced  in  the  19 th  Century.  In  fact,  Weininger  was
responsible  for  a  whole  series  of  counterfeits,  and  in  two  spectacular  and
sensational  trials  he  was  finally  convicted  and  imprisoned  for  theft  and
fraud.  He  died  of  dropsy  on  21  November  1879  in  the  prison  at  Stein
in  Lower  Austria.  However,  Weininger  was  not  the  “master  faker”  he  was
accused  of  being,  but  rather  a  resourceful  and  well-cormected  antique
dealer  who  knew  how  to  profit  from  conditions  in  the  era  of  Historicism.
Among  the  wealth  of  craftsmen  who  had  been  schooled  in  historical
models  and  techniques,  he  found  a  number  of  artists  who  were  willing  to
put  their  skills  to  work  for  him.  Ideal  prerequisites  were  provided  by  the
generally  eclectic  interests  of  the  time  and  widespread  copying  of  historical ­
  styles.  Making  copies  was  part  of  the  everyday  work  of  artisans  at  the
time.
Today  we  know  that  most  of  the  fakes  initiated  by  Weininger  remained
undetected  during  his  lifetime.  Düring  his  interrogation  and  trials  beginning
  in  1876  he  admitted  only  that  which  could  be  proved  anyway  or
might  shorten  his  sentence.  Thus  the  two  trials  dealt  only  with  the  activities
  connected  with  the  museum  of  Viennas  Palais  Modena.  From  these
holdings,  the  so-called  Estense  Collection,  he  borrowed  objects,  had  them
copied,  and  then  replaced  the  Originals  with  the  copies.  He  chose  a  similar
  modus  operandi  for  another  collection  that  today  is  found  in  the  Kunsthistorisches ­
  Museum:  the  Ecclesiastical  Treasury.  Today  we  know  that
within  the  extensive  holdings  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Treasury  are  at  least
fourteen  counterfeit  items  or  objects  assembled  from  copied  and  original
parts  and  that  are  connected  with  Salomon  Weininger.  In  the  second  part
of  the  present  essay,  they  are  treated  in  detail.  The  first  part,  however,
focuses  on  the  person  Salomon  Weininger,  his  methods  and  modus  operandi ­
  as  well  as  the  artists  and  craftsmen  who  worked  for  him.  Detailed
discussion  of  the  case  files  and  court  reports,  which  have  not  previously
been  the  subject  of  research,  provides  the  necessary  insight  into  Weininger’s ­
  activity  and  at  the  same  into  the  customs  and  morals  of  art  production
  in  Vienna  and  of  collecting  in  the  second  half  of  the  19 th  Century.