Photo by Mariano Vivanco

Dr. Aaron Roni Neumark presides over the most astonishing and historically significant collection of Judaica in the world, accumulated over hundreds of years by his family and enlarged by him.

The family history is fascinating enough: a saga of tribulations, oppression and near obliteration, and ultimate survival, worthy of a Hollywood epic drama, spanning generations.

Deriving the name from the historical district of Neumark, also known as Mark Brandenburg, in the Brandenburg province of then West-Prussia, the Neumarks were a community of Orthodox Jews established there since the 1300s. Disenfranchised and persecuted by consecutive rulers, they were eventually granted the all-important status of “Schutzjuden” or “protected Jews” by King Friedrich Wilhelm I Hohenzollern of Prussia, in the early 1700s.

This enabled them to conduct business and trade freely, worship and celebrate religious ceremonies, and generally live a life of self-determination, as well as being legally able to adopt “Neumark” as their official family name. 

Through the years and generations that followed the family prospered and thrived, establishing printing presses and a publishing firm whose main purpose was to reproduce Jewish religious texts and eventually, a complete set of the Talmud.

They traded in, and collected rare book editions, and began collecting art during the 19^th century from established book dealers and auction houses.

Their cultural fortunes took a catastrophic turn again when Hitler’s Nazi regime took hold in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. 

Roni’s late grandfather Friedrich (Fritz) Schalom Neumark, a prominent collector of stamps, Judaica, and “Israeliana” printed items, took flight to Palestine in 1934. His parents stayed in Germany and perished in the killing fields of the Bikernieki forest.

The Collection

Roni Neumark was raised with a rather unique privilege and responsibility: to preserve and take care of this exceptional collection of rare museum artefacts and art works – the legacy of a remarkable family.

Rather than delegate the task to a team of historians and curators, he began adding to it.

‘My interest in and passion for collecting rare items borders on the obsession. I dedicate 90% of my activities to pouring over auction and dealers catalogues, researching, and locating one-off treasures that I add methodically to a collection that now numbers in excess of 5000 oil paintings, drawings, rare books, engravings, etchings, illustrated and illuminated scrolls and manuscripts, as well as other visual works printed on porcelain, parchment, silk, and paper, dating from the 15^th to the 19^th centuries, representing 500 years of art, culture, and legacy’

BBeyond’s meeting with Roni Neumark took place at his private London apartment, which is, essentially, the setting of small parts of the collection.

‘I like living with it’, he tells me.

The Rabbis Portraits Room

An entire room is dedicated to oil portraits of the most distinguished Rabbis of the 18^th-19^th centuries. Staring down from the walls are generations of Jewish grandees in formal attire, while the shelves are laden with century-old books printed on vellum, stamped with the family crest and carrying a picture of a particular benefactor:  a Prussian King, an Italian Doge, Pope Leo X. The latter was a patron of the arts and culture, and known for showing favour and tolerance towards Jewish people, particularly in Rome and Venice.

The books are remarkably well-preserved, even though Roni allows his guests to leaf through them. Some were printed immediately after Gutenberg’s Press, sole copies of Hebrew books from the earliest stages of printing in Europe (‘Incunables’).

Most are in Hebrew, but even if unable to read the script, one is overwhelmed by the uniqueness of each tome, its touch and smell. We are in the presence of some of the rarest books in the world.

I was also able to leaf through some of his extremely rare non-Hebrew books – first edition by Copernicus, an atlas printed on parchment by the 16^th century cartographer Agnese Battista.

The Neumark Family Collection further holds dozens of original etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) etched during his lifetime, illustrating Biblical scenes from the Old Testament, and depicting Judaic subjects and portraits. 

The Hallway

In the hallway, we walk past portraits of Neumark ancestors, as well as stereotypical representations of Jews at the time the paintings were created: counting money or clutching a bag of coins. This is a collection of fine art paintings that one can normally only see in a museum and one with plenty of sub-context of personal and cultural significance.

A rare edition of the Magna Carta is also framed on the hallway wall. Why, I ask?

It is part of the Anglo-Judaic collection, Roni tells me: it is there because of clauses 10 and 11, aimed at Jewish moneylenders in England at the time.

The Collector’s Mindset

This custodian of the collection is an avid collector himself. There are different reasons why someone would hanker so much after a particular work or historical artefact: personal, adding value to an existing collection, completing a series…

Roni refers to his grandfather when he tells me that “sometimes you just don’t want anyone else to acquire and own a significant piece.”

There is a certain amount of collector’s pride too: knowing that you are the only person in the world who owns a complete series or a unique piece. 

And THAT is the realm that the Neumark collection and of its current custodian who is a known and respected authority on the rarest of Judaica and “only one in the world” pieces.

The “Neumark Mona Lisa”

Hidden behind a short curtain is a piece de resistance that has recently been added to Roni Neumark’s collection and one that has nothing to do with Judaica.

He opens it with a certain panache and I can immediately see why: facing you, in the middle of a London apartment, is the single most famous artwork in the world – or at least, a faithful copy of the original, painted by a da Vinci student. 

It is quite the jaw-dropping experience, a veritable visual knock-out. 

He acquired it at Christies’ auction, intrigued by its provenance and determined to dig deeper into it.

He employed a team of leading forensic scientists to analyze the colour palette, pigment samples, layer structure, and ageing process to authenticate and date the composition used in the piece.

He then sought the advice and treatment of a leading art conservationist and restorer and his professional team, on the painting.

The conservation team confirmed that the painting was made by copying the Louvre’s original, or the Prado version, at a very early stage, when the original was not dirty and obscured as it is known and seen today.

The “Neumark Mona Lisa” joins a small number of scientifically authenticated and privately held copies of the great master’s work, made by his disciples.

The Neumark Legacy

The legacy of the Neumark family and its collection is inextricably bound to that of its current custodian and collector, Aaron Roni Neumark. He has helped preserve, enhance, and enlarge it and so the two are entwined in more ways than one. 

He is, after all, a major collector, and an indisputable connoisseur in his own right. He is also a scholar in that his encyclopedic knowledge about Judaica is likely unrivalled.

Collectors of these ultra-niche artefacts are few and far between, and rather secretive, as one might expect.

Alone in this select group he wishes to share the remarkable collection that his forebearers built and that he enhanced in size and quality.

Sharing it with the world at large will take two paths: a virtual museum, using his avatar to guide and narrate the history of each item, and a physical museum. 

The collection is without any doubt worth both and the world at large ought to be reminded, through collections such as this, that the Jewish people have long been enlightened, cultured, and the custodians of all things civilized.