Bloch, George

Plot Location	2H24
Surname	Bloch
Given Name(s)	George
Place of Birth	Vienna, Austria
Date of Birth (Eng)	October 12, 1920
Date of Birth (Heb)
Date of Death (Eng)	April 27, 2009
Date of Death (Heb)	3 Iyar 5769
Age at Death	88
Hebrew Name	גרשון בן אברהם
Spouse’s Name	Mary Gurevich
Father’s Name	Albert Bloch
Mother’s Name	Gertrude Mayer
Other Surnames
Sex	M
Marital Status	M
Maiden Name
Title (e.g., Dr)
Religious Status (כ/ל/י)
Cause of Death
Other Family Data	Daughters (from his first marriage): Monica Bloch and Linda-Renée Bloch. Stepsons: Robert Dorfman and Gershon Dorfman
Inscription (Eng)	IN LOVING MEMORY OF GEORGE BLOCH BORN 12 OCTOBER 1920 DIED 27 APRIL 2009 BELOVED HUSBAND, FATHER AND GRANDFATHER A WONDERFUL, KIND AND GENEROUS MAN
Inscription (Heb)	פ׳נ׳ גרשון בן אברהם נפטר ג׳ אייר תשס״ט ת׳נ׳צ׳ב׳ה׳
Inscription (Other)
Historical	He was first married to Eugenie “Genny” Topas, the daughter of Lubov Topas (2H15). Mary, his second wife, was the daughter of Boris Goorevich (2C14). Daughter Linda-Renée Bloch wrote on 16 April 2021: “My father’s Hebrew name was Gershom (גרשום), not Gershon. “My father began collecting art with my mother — including Japanese art (e.g., screens: Tales of Genji), netsuke, and modern Western art — well before I was born, while married to my mother. Some of his connections in the art world, e.g., collectors Aviva and Emile Najar, who helped him negotiate numerous purchases — were specifically friends whom he met through my mother. He continued to collect art while married to his second wife, Mary, and indeed went on to create a serious collection of Chinese snuff bottles as well as Western art with her.” The Sotheby’s website (23 October 2013) has the following history of George and his art collection: “George Bloch, the son of a prominent industrial family, was educated in England and moved to Shanghai in 1938. He stayed in Asia and eventually set up a successful company manufacturing and distributing toys, timepieces, housewares, and computer components. In 1969, George married Mary and they began to actively collect art together. With Mary, George’s interests grew far beyond the stamp collection he had amassed largely on his own, to include Japanese ivory and lacquer, Chinese ceramics and other works of art, and modern Western painting and sculpture. Their collection of twentieth-century Western art was one of the few formed in the Far East at the time and by far the most important in Hong Kong. They turned to collecting snuff bottles in the early 1980s when considering the prospect of the return of Hong Kong to the PRC and felt it wise to focus on collecting something less bulky and more easily transported than modern paintings and sculpture.”

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