Julius Samuel Held (1905–2002) was an art historian, collector, and expert on Dutch painters Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Rembrandt. He published several monographs and was a professor of art history at Barnard College, Columbia University, from 1937 to 1970.^[1]

Julius S. Held was born on April 15, 1905, to Adolf and Nannette Held, who ran a clothing store in Mosbach, Germany.^[2] He attended university in Freiburg, Heidelberg, Berlin, and Vienna, and earned his doctorate from the University of Freiburg in 1930 with a dissertation on Albrecht Dürer. After the Nazi regime came to power in 1933, Held sought a way to emigrate. He arrived in the United States in 1934. In 1936, he married Ingrid-Marta Nordin-Petterson, an art conservator. The couple had two children.^[2]

Held became professor of art history at Columbia University's Barnard College in New York City in 1937, a position he held until his retirement in 1970. Later in his life, he moved to Bennington, Vermont, where he died in 2002.^[3]

Held wrote several monographs on Dutch painters including Rembrandt, Anthony van Dyck, and Peter Paul Rubens. These works can be found by searching for Julius S. Held on Worldcat.

• Julius S. Held Collection of Rare Books

• Julius S. Held Papers at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
• Guide to the Julius S. Held Family Collection at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, NY
• Interview of Julius Held Archived 2013-07-23 at archive.today at the UCLA Library’s Center for Oral History Research
• Record for Julius S. Held in the Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Collection