Freud's 4pm Session: Unpacking Freud's Collection

The story of the Freud family's emigration from Vienna to London in 1938 is paralleled by another story; the journey of Freud's collection from Berggasse 19 to 20 Maresfield Gardens. Key to these journeys was Anton Sauerwald, the Nazi Commissar tasked with issuing the documents of 'non-impediment' that facilitated their departure.

Recently, The Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna acquired an archive from Anton Sauerwald's great-niece, which throws considerable light on this obscure period in psychoanalytic history. In this special event, Dr Daniela Finzi, Research Director at the Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna will be in conversation with Prof Gemma Blackshaw (RCA), curator of our current exhibition Housekeeper, to discuss the new Sauerwald archive in the context of the exhibition.

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Speakers:

Daniela Finzi is a literary and cultural scholar and a curator. She has been the Research Director and board member of the Sigmund Freud Foundation since 2016. She has been on the board of aka — Arbeitskreis Kulturanalyse, and a member of the publishing committee of aka/Texte, published by Turia + Kant, since 2014. She is also a member of the editorial board of the Vienna University Press series “Sigmund Freud's Works. Viennese Interdisciplinary Commentaries”. Her most recent publications include the catalogue Documents of Injustice. The Case of Freud (SFM, 2025), the anthology Thoughts for the Times on Groups and Masses (Leuven University Press, 2025, ed. with Jeanne Wolff Bernstein), the anthologies IT HURTS! Violence against Women in Art and Psychoanalysis (De Gruyter, 2025) and Freud and the Émigré. Austrian Émigrés, Exiles and the Legacy of Psychoanalysis in Britain, 1930s-1970s (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, ed. with Elane Shapira), the catalogue FREUD. Berggasse 19 – Origin of Psychoanalysis (Hatje Cantz, 2020, ed. with Monika Pessler), Dora, Hysteria and Gender (Leuven University Press, 2028, ed. with P. V. Haute and H. Westerink).

Gemma Blackshaw is an art historian, writer and curator. A specialist in what she has termed the ‘clinical modernism’ of art in Vienna circa 1900, she works on the intersection of modernist portraiture and figuration with clinical medical cultures in early 20th-century Europe, and feminist archival, curatorial and writing practices which attend to the themes of sickness, care, attention and reparation are central to her research. She works within the School of Arts & Humanities at the RCA, a postgraduate institution for art and design, often in collaboration with its practice-based researchers in painting, photography and writing. She started and continues to lead the School’s research group devoted to creative research as a practice of care. She further contributes to the School’s research culture through the supervision and examination of PhD candidates, and the mentoring of early-career researchers. Gemma Blackshaw is curator Cathie Pilkington's Housekeeper exhibition at the Freud Museum

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Complement your visit to the Freud Museum with one of our tours or talks led by staff, volunteers and guest speakers.

The talks are free with your admission ticket. Book your admission ticket now!

The event will be held on the first floor of the Museum during regular opening hours. Unfortunately, the Freud Museum does not currently have step-free access. Advance booking is highly recommended, as capacity is limited.

Concessions/Members/Patrons: Please show proof of eligibility/membership card on arrival.

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