{{Short description|German art historian and collector}} {{Infobox person | name = Gert-Rudolf Flick | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 29 May 1943 | birth_place = France | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | education = | alma_mater = LMU Munich | occupation = Art historian | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | known_for = | boards = | spouse = Corinne Müller-Vivil | children = | parents = | relatives = | website = }} '''Gert-Rudolf''' "'''Muck'''" '''Flick''' (born 29 May 1943) is a German art historian and collector, a member of the Flick family of industrialists whose wealth originated with Flick's grandfather, Friedrich Flick, who worked with the Nazis during the Second World War. He is the former publisher of ''Apollo'' magazine and is a visiting professor in the history of art at the University of Buckingham. He has written two well-received works on the history of art, ''Missing Masterpieces'' (2003) and ''Masters and Pupils'' (2008).
==Early life and family== Gert-Rudolf Flick was born on 29 May 1943 in France to Otto-Ernst Flick and his wife Barbara Raabe. His grandfather was Friedrich Flick, a German industrialist convicted after the Second World War of using slave labour in his factories.<ref name="int">[https://books.google.com/books?id=NalLGe-UIOcC&pg=PT262 "Fund-raising and the Holocaust: The Case of Dr Gert-Rudolf Flick's Contribution to Oxford University"] by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky in Alan Montefiore & David Vines (Eds.) (2005). ''Integrity in the Public and Private Domains''. Routledge. p. 262. {{ISBN|978-1-134-67938-6}}.</ref>
He married and divorced first Princess Johanna von Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein. Secondly, he married and divorced Princess Donatella Missikoff of Ossetia with whom he had one son Sebastian (1989). Thirdly, he married Corinne Müller-Vivil, a confectionary heiress,<ref>{{cite web |title=Vivil A Mueller GmbH & Co KG - Company Profile and News |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/6425315Z:GR |website=Bloomberg.com |accessdate=18 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>:de:Vivil</ref> with whom he has one daughter.<ref name=teleg>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/news/9853684/Daimler-Benz-heir-wins-planning-row-over-tasteless-basement-plans.html Daimler-Benz heir wins planning row over 'tasteless' basement plans.] Andrew Hough, ''The Telegraph'', 6 February 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2019.</ref>
==Career== Flick has a PhD in law from LMU Munich. He joined the Flick firm in 1971 but with his younger siblings, Friedrich Christian Flick ("Mick") and Dagmar Flick, negotiated a sale of their interests in the firm that was realised in 1975 for a shared 405m marks and an additional negotiated payment of 225m marks later. Flick later made a significant gain on the sale of shares following a change in ownership of the Flick group.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/die-reichsten-deutschen-gert-rudolf-flick-von-beruf-erbe-a-137600.html Gert-Rudolf Flick - von Beruf Erbe.] Christian Keun, ''Spiegel Online'', 2001. Retrieved 11 February 2019.</ref>
In the 1990s, Flick was the publisher of ''Apollo'' magazine. He has written two major works on the history of art, a study of ''Missing Masterpieces'' (2003), and ''Masters and Pupils'' (2008) which postulated an apostolic succession of training in European art history.<ref>[https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/06/flick-art-perugino-raphael The line of beauty.] Brian Sewell, ''New Statesman'', 26 June 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2019.</ref> As of 2019, he is a visiting professor in the history of art at the University of Buckingham.<ref name=buck>[https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/research/hri/fellows/flick Professor Gert-Rudolf Flick.] University of Buckingham. Retrieved 11 February 2019.</ref>
==University of Oxford== In 1992, Flick was appointed to the Court of Benefactors of the University of Oxford in recognition of donations he had made to the Europaeum project.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NalLGe-UIOcC&pg=PT228 Pinto-Duschinsky, p. 228.]</ref> A proposed Flick professorship in European thought at the university proved controversial due to concerns that its funding might be tainted by Flick's inheritance from his grandfather who had created his business empire partly during the Nazi period.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NalLGe-UIOcC&pg=PT245 Pinto-Duschinsky, p. 245.]</ref> In March 1996, Flick wrote to ''The Daily Telegraph'' to repudiate his grandfather's wartime activities.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NalLGe-UIOcC&pg=PT247 Pinto-Duschinsky, p. 247.]</ref> The funding of around £350,000 was withdrawn at Flick's request later that year.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/balliol-loses-its-tainted-cash-1305090.html Balliol loses its tainted cash.] Ros Wynne-Jones, ''The Independent'', 16 April 1996. Retrieved 11 February 2019.</ref>
==Park House== Flick was resident with his wife Corinne at Park House, Kensington, in central London which he is reported as having purchased in 1986.<ref name=teleg/> The house was home to his collection of early silver and Italian old master paintings and ''vedutà'' including a Canaletto scene of fireworks over Venice.<ref name=teleg/><ref name=buck/> In 2013 he won planning permission to expand the house by creating new rooms in the basement despite opposition from neighbours.<ref name=teleg/> The excavation was carried out, but the full plans were unrealised. The house was sold to the businessman Richard Caring for £40m in 2018.<ref>[https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/ivy-tycoon-richard-caring-plans-double-basement-at-bargain-40m-kensington-mansion-a126641.html "Digging in: Ivy tycoon Richard Caring plans double basement at 'bargain' £40m Kensington mansion"], Jonathan Prynn, ''Homes and Property'', 18 December 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2019.</ref>
==Selected publications== * ''View Paintings of a European Collector''. Westerham Press, 1996. * ''Missing Masterpieces: Lost Works of Art 1450-1900''. British Art Journal in association with Merrell, London, 2003. {{ISBN|9781858941974}} * ''Masters & Pupils: The Artistic Succession from Perugino to Manet, 1480-1880''. Hogarth Arts, London, 2008. {{ISBN|9780955406324}}
==See also== * Flick family
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flick, Gert-Rudolf}} Category:Living people Category:1943 births Category:Academics of the University of Buckingham Category:German publishers (people) Category:German art historians Category:LMU Munich alumni Category:Flick family Category:20th-century German art collectors Category:21st-century art collectors