In 1953 she married James Alsdorf.[2] Together, they operated Alsdorf International Ltd., an export and investment business.[3] James died in 1990.[4]
Art collector and philanthropist
Alsdorf collected art with her husband. Their collection included 20th century European paintings, antiquities, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian art.[5] In September 1997, Alsdorf gave 400 works of Asian art to the Art Institute of Chicago, of which she was a trustee.[6][7] She was both a founding board member and trustee for over 50 years,[8] as well as a donor to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.[9] She also donated to the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art.[1]
Looted art controversies
In 2004 the FBI seized from Alsdorf a painting by Pablo Picasso, Femme en Blanc, that had been owned by Carlotta Landsberg and that was suspected of having been looted or sold under duress during the Nazi era.[10] A settlement was reached in 2005 after years of litigation.[11][12]
Over the years concerns have been raised about the origins of antiquities in the Alsdorf collection, notably concerning artworks from Nepal.[13][14][15][16] In 2023, Crain’s Chicago Business and ProPublica reported that nine objects from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf collection had been returned by the museum to their countries of origin since the late 1980s.[17] In 2025, arrangements were made to return additional works to Nepal.[18]
Legacy
Alsdorf died in 2019 at the age of 94.[1][19] In 2020 Christie's auctioned 60 objects from the Alsdorf home in Chicago.[20][21]
^Pal, Pratapaditya; Little, Stephen; Art Institute of Chicago (1997). A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection. New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN978-0500974544. S2CID126639691.
