Showing posts with label Curt Valentin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Curt Valentin. Show all posts

Jul 14, 2024

How solid is an art provenance text? Analysis of a Degas sculpture at the NGA

"Probably", "possibly", "apparently", "proposes" and "allegedly" in texts for Degas' Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice, original wax 1880s/1890s, cast 1920/1949 at the NGA

Oct 4, 2022

Philadelphia Museum of Art and the philanthropist donor Gallatin

Portrait of A. E. Gallatin, I905

A claim for restitution has been made against the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the return of "Composition with Blue" by Piet Mondrian, 1926. The artwork was seized by the Nazi authorities in 1937 and, after passing through Buchholz and Valentin, sold to the American collector Albert Eugene Gallatin, who bequeathed it to the PMA upon his death in 1952. (see below for description and provenance published by PMA on its website*)


The Philadelphia Museum of Art is battling a federal action that lays claim to a 1926 painting by Dutch artist Piet Mondria under the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act. The suit, which was removed to Pennsylvania Eastern District Court on Tuesday, was filed by the Tucker Law Group and Kaye Spiegler PLLC on behalf of the trustees of the Elizabeth McManus Holtzman Irrevocable Trust. The Museum is represented by Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads; Hahn Loeser & Parks; and Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick. The case is 2:22-cv-00122, Holtzman et al v. Philadelphia Museum Of Art.


An obvious question is whether any other artworks passed through the same hands. Are there any issues or gaps in their Nazi-era provenances that require further research?


Below are some of the artworks donated by A. E. Gallatin or that passed through his hands on their journey to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For research purposes only. 

Jun 26, 2022

Modern art seized by Nazis and sold through Curt Valentin: Where are they today?

Nazi Looted Art Research, focus on Curt Valentin and the sale of modern art, classified by Nazis as "Degenerate" and seized for resale to finance the Nazi war effort

Location of "Degenerate Art" seized by Nazis and sold by Curt Valentin (where it it known)

New York, Museum of Modern Art16
Privatbesitz12
St. Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum5
Detroit, Institute of Arts5
USA, Privatbesitz4
Washington, National Gallery of Art3
Philadelphia, Museum of Art3
Hannover, Sprengel Museum3
Essen, Museum Folkwang3
Washington, Smithsonian Institution2
Providence, Rhode Island School of Design2
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum2
Cambridge/MA, Fogg Art Museum2
Cambridge/MA, Busch-Reisinger Museum - Harvard University Art Museums2
Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie2
Würzburg, Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger1
Winterthur, Kunstmuseum1
Washington, Library of Congress1
Washington, International Gallery of Art1
Sydney, Art Gallery New South Wales1
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie1
Schweiz, Privatbesitz1
Sammlung Rolf Horn1
Oberlin, Allen Memorial Art Museum1
New York, Weintraub Gallery1
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art1
New York, Brooklyn Museum1
Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art1
Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum1
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center1
Minneapolis, Institute of Arts1
Michigan, Slg. Adolph Alfred Taubmann1
Mailand, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta1
Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza1
London, Sammlung Goodwin1
Locarno, Museo Civico e Archeologico Castello Visconteo1
Kunsthandel1
Köln, Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln1
Köln, Kunsthaus Lempertz1
Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art1
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle1
Hagen, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum1
Dresden, Skulpturensammlung1
Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art1
Chicago, The Art Institute1
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts1
Bern, Galerie Kornfeld und Cie.1
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Museum Berggruen1
Berlin, Galerie Michael Haas1
Bergen, Kunstmuseum, Stenersen's Collection1

 raw data source: Beschlagnahmeinventar "Entartete Kunst", "Degenerate Art" Research Center, FU Berlin; filtered for "Curt Valentin" and Location not blank or "Unbekannt"

http://emuseum.campus.fu-berlin.de/eMuseumPlus?service=RedirectService&sp=Scollection&sp=SfieldValue&sp=0&sp=5&sp=3&sp=SdetailList&sp=0&sp=Sdetail&sp=2&sp=F



See also: Buchholz and Valentin in Provenance Texts in American Museums

Jun 24, 2022

Henri Matisse The Blue Window

Henri Matisse
The Blue Window
Issy-les-Moulineaux, summer 1913
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Credit
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund
Object number
273.1939
 https://web.archive.org/web/20150805185104/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79350


EK no. 3688: Stillleben, blaues Zimmer. One of 139 paintings removed from the Folkwang Essen in July and August 1937 (exh. cat. Folkwang 2010, p. 348). [4] Included in the exhibition Art in Our Time, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, May 10- September 30, 1939 (no. 93).

Jan 26, 2021

Valentin or Buchholz in Provenance Texts of American Museums

Question for art provenance researchers. How many of these artworks display gaps in the provenance for the years 1933-1945?

Which artworks, if any, appear to have the most problematic provenances? Why? 

Apr 3, 2020

Curt Valentin in provenances at the Harvard Art Museums




- The Persistent Crime of Nazi-Looted Art, by Sophie Gilbert, in The AtlanticLooted Art



The director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Alfred H. Barr Jr. used art dealer Curt Valentin as an intermediary to secretly purchase artworks confiscated by Nazis from German museums. What else did Barr and other American museums directors purchase through Valentin?

In this next series of posts, we will look at the provenances of artworks that mention Curt Valentin. 

An interesting exercise for young art historians and provenances researchers is to examine each provenance with the questions: 

1) Who owned this artwork before Curt Valentin? 

2) Are there provenance gaps for the years 1933-1945?

3) What share of artworks that mention Curt Valentin in the provenance lack information about sellers, dates and places for the Nazi years? (0-25%; 26-50%; 51%-75%; 76%-100%).

4) What possible explanations might there be for the observations in 3)?

5) What actions does this suggest?


1. Mentions of Curt Valentin in the provenances of artworks at the Harvard Art Museums








See  Valentin Harvard Art Museums Provenance



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for more information on Curt Valentin's role in bringing European art into American museums, see:

MoMA’s Problematic Provenances by William D. Cohan published November 17, 2011 by Artnews