“Agony” by Michael Schreck (1901-1999) Remarkably Rare Artwork - Warth Mill Internment Camp A New Acquisition By The Ben Uri Gallery Alan Morgenroth
Ben Uri Gallery and Museum have announced the acquisition of a very rare depiction of the infamous Warth Mill Internment Camp by the Austrian Jewish refugee artist Michael Schreck which they bought at an auction in New York in July 2023 using their acquisition reserve fund. The provenance for the painting was strong, having once been donated by the artist to the Boca Raton Museum of Art in 1991. However, little did Ben Uri know that the provenance of this painting could be traced back to the first Onchan Camp Art Exhibition in August 1940. This essay reveals the true significance of this painting using a multitude of archives and new sources, including documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act and the discovery of hitherto unpublished contemporary photographs. Historian and researcher Alan Morgenroth uses this painting to illustrate the history of UK internment policies in World War II and how these policies impacted one refugee artist and his family. Hitherto, the only well-known illustrations of the infamous Warth Mill Internment Camp were lino or wood cuts by Hellmuth Weissenborn and Hermann Fechenbach. The former 1
