Edward Speelman in America

Landscape with a Wheatfield. 

Jacob van Ruisdael

Below is a partial list of artworks which arrived in American museums in part thanks to the work of  UK art dealer Edward Speelman. (source: Getty Provenance Index Public Collections).

Even incomplete, the Getty Provenance Index Public Collections list gives a good idea of the role of Speelman in forming American collections, including:

• 17 paintings at the J. P. Getty Museum
• 15 paintings at the Norton Simon
• 3 painting in Boston MFA and Saint Louis
• and more

To see the complete, up-to-date list go to the museums' websites. See also "The Legacy of Edward Speelman"

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	GPI: Speelman in Provenance
Institution	Artist Name	Title	Accession No.
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	HOOCH, PIETER DE (Dutch)	A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy	84.PA.47
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	GENTILESCHI, ORAZIO (Italian)	Rest on the Flight into Egypt	71.PA.12 [deaccessioned]
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	RUBENS, PETER PAUL (Flemish), workshop	The Meeting of David and Abigail	73.PA.68
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	LISSE, DIRCK VAN DER (Dutch)	Landscape with Bacchanalian Procession	72.PB.12
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	REMBRANDT HARMENSZ. VAN RIJN (Dutch)	An Old Man in Military Costume	78.PB.246
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	RUISDAEL, JACOB VAN (Dutch)	Landscape with Wheat Field	83.PA.278
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	HOLBEIN, HANS (THE YOUNGER) (German), attributed	Allegory with Horse and Rider	80.PB.72
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	CUYP, AELBERT (Dutch)	A View of the Maas at Dordrecht	83.PB.272
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	BORCH, GERARD TER (II) (Dutch)	A Maid Milking a Cow in a Barn	83.PB.232
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	STEEN, JAN (Dutch)	The Drawing Lesson	83.PB.388
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	SAENREDAM, PIETER JANSZ. (Dutch)	The Interior of St. Bavo, Haarlem	85.PB.225
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	KONINCK, PHILIPS DE (Dutch)	Panoramic Landscape	85.PA.32
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	BORCH, GERARD TER (II) (Dutch)	Interior of a Stable	86.PB.631
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	GOSSAERT, JAN (Netherlandish)	Francisco de los Cobos (?)	88.PB.43
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	SCHALCKEN, GODFRIED (Dutch)	The Annunciation	86.PB.464
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	BECCAFUMI, DOMENICO (Italian)	Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata	97.PB.25
Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum	BECCAFUMI, DOMENICO (Italian)	The Miraculous Communion of Saint Catherine of Siena	97.PB.26
Minneapolis, MN, Minneapolis Institute of Arts	BRUGGHEN, HENDRICK TER (Dutch)	The Gamblers	60.17
Princeton, NJ, Art Museum, Princeton University	BATONI, POMPEO GIROLAMO (Italian)	Madonna and Child in Glory	77-51
Saint Louis, MO, Saint Louis Art Museum	PYNACKER, ADAM (Dutch)	Landscape with a Goatherd	150:1982
Saint Louis, MO, Saint Louis Art Museum	HOBBEMA, MEINDERT (Dutch)	View along the Amstel	1:1982
Saint Louis, MO, Saint Louis Art Museum	OSTADE, ADRIAEN VAN (Dutch)	Peasants Dancing in a Tavern	147:1966
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art	WTEWAEL, JOACHIM ANTONISZ. (Dutch)	Moses Striking the Rock	1972.11.1
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art	DEVIS, ARTHUR (British)	Portrait of a Man	1964.2.3
Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts	WITTE, PIETER DE (PIETRO CANDIDO) (Flemish)	The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine	1980.72
Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts	GELDER, ARENT DE (Dutch)	Rest on the Flight to Egypt	57.182
Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts	RUYSDAEL, SALOMON VAN (Dutch)	View of Beverwijk	1982.396
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	BIJLERT, JAN HERMANSZ. VAN (Dutch)	Portrait of an Officer in Armour	M.1978.18.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	CLAUDE LORRAIN (CLAUDE GELLÉE) (French)	Landscape with Jacob and Laban and his Daughters	M.1976.1.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	BERCHEM, NICOLAES PIETERSZ. (Dutch)	A Pastoral Scene	F.1972.15.4.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	FYT, JAN (Flemish)	Still Life with Red Curtain	F.1972.36.3.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	GOYEN, JAN JOSEPHSZ. VAN (Dutch)	A River Landscape with a View of Overschie	F.1969.49.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	KEYSER, THOMAS DE (Dutch), circle	Portrait of a Man	F.1972.15.3.1.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	KEYSER, THOMAS DE (Dutch), circle	Portrait of a Woman	F.1972.15.3.2.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	MAES, NICOLAES (Dutch)	A Family Portrait with a View of Dordrecht	F.1972.15.2.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	MAGNASCO, ALESSANDRO (LISSANDRINO) (Italian)	Interior with Monks	F.1973.34.1.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	METSU, GABRIEL (Dutch)	Woman at her Toilette	F.1972.15.1.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	MOILLON, LOUISE (French)	Still Life with Cherries, Strawberries, and Gooseberries	F.1972.36.2.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	NEER, AERT VAN DER (Dutch)	Winter Scene with Figures Playing Golf	F.1972.35.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	SAVERY, ROELANDT (Dutch)	Landscape with Animals and Birds	F.1972.36.1.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	VERSPRONCK, JOHANNES CORNELISZ. (Dutch)	Portrait of a Lady	F.1973.34.2.P
Pasadena, CA, Norton Simon Museum	SAVERY, ROELANDT (Dutch)	Landscape with Animals and Birds	F.1972.36.1.P
New York, NY, Frick Collection	BRUEGEL, PIETER (THE ELDER) (Flemish)	The Three Soldiers	65.1.163

see also : the Legacy of Edward Speelman

Art Provenance Research Red Flags: Alexander Ball

Art Looting Investigation Unit Detailed Interrogation Report of Karl Haberstock (DIR 13) on refugee art dealer Alexander Ball "The implications of such a revelation are exceedingly grave, and BALL should be brought to account." However Alexander Ball and his brother Richard had already reached America.
source: War Department Strategic Services Report DIR 13
https://dfs.ny.gov/consumer/holocaust/history_art_looting_restitution/The%20Allies/OSS%20and%20the%20ALIU/ALIU%20Reports/karl_haberstock.pdf

Alexander Ball, also known as Alex Ball, A. Ball, A & R Ball, and Ball Galleries, was a Berlin art dealer who became a refugee and, unfortunately, worked closely with notorious Nazi art looter Karl Haberstock, helping him to locate Jewish collections for spoliation.

A Ball's activities are documented by the Art Looting Investigation Unit in several reports, including the Final Report Red Flag List of Names and the Detailed Interrogation Report (DIR) Number 13 of Karl Haberstock.

It is noteworthy how poorly Alexander Ball is documented and referenced today in art history dictionaries, encyclopedias, and art reference databases.

Art that passed through his hands landed in major museums. Any provenance or ownership history that contains his name in any of its forms deserves a closer look, with special scrutiny for items listed on the Nazi Era Internet Portal and items with gaps or other red flags in their provenance.

Below are a few mentions of Alexander Ball in historical sources as well as a few references for him.

Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names

Ball, Alexander. Paris, 9 rue Royale Aix en Provence New York (?). German Jewish refugee dealer. Intermediary for Haberstock in the sale of pictures from the unoccupied zone. Also believed to have informed on the whereabouts of prominent Jews, notably Guy de Rothschild. Believed to be in the United States.

de Beauperthuys, Simone le. Paris, 6 ave de la Grande Armee. Secretary of Alexander Ball and intermediary for Ball with Haberstock, to whom she offered pictures of doubtful origin. Also represented Fischer, for whom she signed a receipt to Bornheim in Paris, July 4 1941.

Red Flags in #Arthistory: Kleinberger

A search on Kleinberger in the German Historical Museum Linz Database returns five paintings

The name "Kleinberger" appears fourteen times in the French MNR database, five times in the German Historical Museum Linz Database and three times in the Art Looting Investigation Red Flag List of Names, along with "Loebl" (14 times) and "Garin" (6 times)

Ward Holzapfel in France's MNR and Germany's Linz Collection looted art databases

The name HOLZAPFEL appears forty-nine times in France's MNR (Site Rose-Valland
Musées Nationaux Récupération),  twenty-four times in the Linz Collection, and seven times in the Art Looting Investigation Unit's Red Flag List of Names of suspects in Nazi art looting.

Red Flags in Art History: Zacharie Birtschansky or Birshansky

Annunciatory Angel, 16th Century  Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)
Provenance: Paris, Z. Birtschansky (dealer-1939), by whom given to the DIA in 1939.
Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal

Art Dealer Zacharie Birtschansky, NARA the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Center, Vaucher Commission Lists, July 16, 1945, FOLD3  https://www.fold3.com/image/231986121 

Who was Zacharie Birtschansky? What does finding his name in a provenance mean?

According to French documents, Zacharie Birtschansky was born on May 27, 1889 in Moscow and was an art dealer with a gallery at 88 rue Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris. Wanted for dealing in stolen art by the French, he escaped to the United States where he was thought to have stored « art treasures ».  The OSS Art Looting Investigaton Unit mentions Birtschansky numerous times, in particular in connection to Wendland and Fischer and to his partner Mandl. The name Birtschansky and Z Birtchansky appears in numerous provenances in US museums, notably the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA), to which he sold or gifted several artworks, such as Saint George and the Dragon, Annunciatory Angel, and Mountain Landscape, the NGA (Bacchus and Ariadne;  Madame Stumpf and Her Daughter) and LACMA (KAUFFMANN, ANGELICA Half-length Portrait of the Duchess of Courland; MANDYN, JAN St. Christopher and the Christ Child)