Felix Bondi

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Felix Eliyahu Bondi (26 October 1860 – 17 January 1934) was a German lawyer, notary, banker and art collector from Dresden. He worked as a lawyer and justice councillor in Dresden. After his father, Joseph Bondi, died in 1897, Felix became a partner in the family bank Bondi & Maron.

Bondi also served as an honorary judge at the Franco-German Court of Arbitration in Paris. He wrote for legal journals and co-edited Staub's Praxis der Finanzierung (1929) and its 1932 supplement.

In addition to his legal work, Bondi was active on several supervisory boards and in charitable and arts activities. He belonged to Dresdner art groups, helped found the Dresdner Museumsverein, and was a noted art collector. His collection included works by many famous artists and was housed in Villa Comeniusstrasse 33. Some works were lost or damaged during the Nazi era and the bombing in February 1945.

Bondi lived at Dresden-Weißer Hirsch and was buried in Dresden-Tolkewitz. He married Anna Engelmann from Olmütz in 1890. They had several children: Herbert Leopold (died 1914 in World War I), Erich Hellmut (died 1922), Joseph Werner (an engineer), a daughter Lalla who married Gert Caden, and a daughter Sofie who married Karl Isaak in Vienna in 1923. Felix Bondi wrote Ein fröhliches Buch, a commemorative work published by Nathan Kaufmann in Frankfurt.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Bondi family faced persecution because of their Jewish heritage, and their bank was Aryanized. The heirs have filed many requests for lost art with the German Lost Art Foundation.