Marilynn Alsdorf

Marilynn Alsdorf (1926-August 1, 2019) was a Chicago art collector, philanthropist and museum trustee.

Early life
Marilynn Alsdorf, née Bruder, was born in 1925 and grew up in the Rogers Park area on the Far North Side of Chicago. After high school at the St. Scholastica Academy, she graduated from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.

In 1953 she married James Alsdorf. Together, they operated Alsdorf International Ltd., an export and investment business. James died in 1990.

Art collector and philanthropist
With her husband; James, Alsdorf collected art. Their collection included 20th century European paintings, antiquities, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian art. In September 1997, Alsdorf gave 400 works of Asian art to the Art Institute of Chicago, of which she was a trustee. She also donated to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art.

Looted art controversies
In 2004 the FBI seized from Alsdorf a painting by 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. A settlement was reached in 2005 after years of litigation.

Over the years concerns have been raised about the origins of antiquities in the Alsdorf collection, notably concerning artworks from Nepal. 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.

Legacy
Alsdorf died in 2019 at the age of 94. In 2020 Christie's auctioned 60 objects from the Alsdorf home in Chicago.

Lawsuits
Bennigson v. Alsdorf