AN EXECUTIVE DESK, CIRCA 1960

The eldest son of Dr. Ludwig and Gertrude Maud-Grote (1906-1996), Dr Andreas Grote (1929-2015) was also, as his father, a prolific art historian and museums expert. In 1965 he was appointed as head of the Foreign Office of the National Museums of Cultural Heritage, where he acted as chief strategy officer for the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Designed in 1962, and built 1965-1968, the museum is one of Mies van der Rohe’s most significant and definitive structures.

The present desk was supplied by Mies to Grote, for use in his office, around 1965. The strong architectural massing of the desk, and the vertical alignment of the veneers, relate directly to the desks that Mies had designed around 1930 for the Lange House, Krefeld, and the Crous apartment, Berlin.