Eric (Elihu) Estorick

Eric Estorick was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish emigrants from Russia. He began his career as a sociologist and writer, but soon developed a passion for modern art that was to prove lifelong.

The end of the Second World War allowed him belatedly to visit Europe to further his research on books he was writing. While here, he found he could actually buy paintings and drawings by some of the artists he loved. Introduced to the Italian Futurist movement, he soon made it the core of his collecting passion. He began to tour galleries all over Europe, buying and selling and getting to know artists and agents.

Six months before he died, he created the Estorick Foundation and donated all his Italian artworks to it. The foundation bought Northampton Lodge in Canonbury Road for what became the Estorick Art Gallery, showcasing his Futurist collection and linked themes.

His peregrinations as a dealer around Europe’s art galleries included many to Prague. This brought him in the 1960s to the attention of communist Czechoslovakia’s state corporation for trade in works of art. They approached him with an unusual offer: could he find a buyer for more than 1,500 Torah scrolls that had been saved in 1942, when Czechoslovak Jews were being taken away by the Nazis for extermination? Estorick obliged, finding in London-based Ralph Yablon a willing benefactor. Two lorry-loads of scrolls eventually arrived at Westminster Synagogue in London, and after further months of sorting and cataloguing were despatched to joyous congregations worldwide.