Showing posts with label Austria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Austria. Show all posts

Apr 23, 2020

The Holocaust and the art market: What does it mean to find Kieslinger in a provenance?



What does it mean to find the name Franz Kieslinger in a provenance? 
(above "Acquired from Dr. Franz Kieslinger, expert at the Dorotheum, Vienna, for 40 Reichsmarks in 1939"

Franz Kieslinger was, first and foremost, a Nazi art looter.
His name in a provenance is a screaming Red Flag. 
This does not mean, of course, that every artwork he touched was looted from Jewish collectors, but his name indicates a high probability of a serious problem.  



In which art collections does his name appear today, in 2020?


1. Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria.


The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism lists six artworks at the Albertina Museum that passed through the hands of Nazi art looter Franz Kieslinger, all of which were acquired in 1939.


Gentleman in blue high-necked coat with golden cordingAnonymous, attributed to 'German artist'28378Acquired from Dr. Franz Kieslinger, expert at the Dorotheum, Vienna, together with inventory numbers 28377, 28379, 28380 for 360 Reichsmarks in 1939
Katharina Fröhlich, Grillparzer's eternal bride (1800-1879), in dark dress with...Attributed to Theer, Robert (1808 - 1863)28380Acquired from Dr. Franz Kieslinger, expert at the Dorotheum, Vienna, together with inventory numbers 28377 to 28379 for 360 Reichsmarks in 1939
Lady in red dress with shoulder-length collar and white lace frillKrafft, Joseph (1787 - 1828)28377Acquired from Dr. Franz Kieslinger, expert at the Dorotheum, Vienna, together with inventory numbers 28378 to 28380 for 360 Reichsmarks in 1939
Officer in blue uniform with red collar and cannon crossAttributed to Grahl, August (1791 - 1868)28379Acquired from Dr. Franz Kieslinger, expert at the Dorotheum, Vienna, together with inventory numbers 8377, 28378, 28380 for 360 Reichsmarks in 1939
Triumphal gate in InnsbruckHagenauer, Karl (1898 - 1956)28207Acquired from Franz Kieslinger, expert at the Dorotheum, Vienna, for 30 Reichsmarks in 1939
Underdrawing for 'Aus dem Leben eines Wüstlings' (From the Life of a Libertine)Genelli, Bonaventura (1798 - 1868)28323Acquired from Dr. Franz Kieslinger, expert at the Dorotheum, Vienna, for 40 Reichsmarks in 1939



see: https://www.kunstdatenbank.at/search-for-objects/fulltext/kieslinger


Comments: First of all, it should be noted that the provenance for the Genelli featured above is pubished NOT on the Albertina Museum website but rather on the separate website of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism. 

Below is a screenshot from 23 April 2020 of the artwork as it appears on the Albertina Museum website. There is no provenance listed at all. This means that any search - even an Advanced Search - on the Albertina website will not pick up the artwork if one searches "Provenienz" for Kieslinger.






Secondly one notes that none of the artworks listed as having Kieslinger in the provenance are from what the Nazis labeled "degenerate" artists like Schiele. This is rather surprising as Kieslinger was known to have been involved in the expropriation of at least one Jewish collector of these artworks. 

This suggests that the listings, not only of the Albertina Museum but also possibly of even the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism might be incomplete.

Who can verify this and if necessary add the information?





Jun 6, 2017

Publishing open linked data: Tableminer and Austrian data portals

In this interesting paper, Tomas Knap looks at using Tableminer+ to help transform CSV files from Austrian data portals,  http://www.data.gv.at and http://www.opendataportal.at, into Linked Open Data.

Quote
"To leverage CSV files to Linked Data3 , it is necessary to 1) classify CSV columns based on its content and context against existing knowledge bases 2) assign RDF terms (HTTP URLs, blank nodes and literals) to the particular cell values according to Linked Data principles (HTTP URL identifiers may be reused from one of the existing knowledge bases), 3) discover relations between columns based on the evidence for the relations in the existing knowledge bases, and 4) convert CSV data to RDF data properly using data types, language tags, well-known Linked Data vocabularies, etc" - 
from: "Increasing Quality of Austrian Open Data by Linking them to Linked Data Sources: Lessons Learned?" by Tomas Knap, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics,  Czech Republic, Semantic Web Company, Vienna, Austria
Read more: at http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1585/ldq2016_paper_01.pdf