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

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. 

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 Art	16
Privatbesitz	12
St. Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum	5
Detroit, Institute of Arts	5
USA, Privatbesitz	4
Washington, National Gallery of Art	3
Philadelphia, Museum of Art	3
Hannover, Sprengel Museum	3
Essen, Museum Folkwang	3
Washington, Smithsonian Institution	2
Providence, Rhode Island School of Design	2
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum	2
Cambridge/MA, Fogg Art Museum	2
Cambridge/MA, Busch-Reisinger Museum - Harvard University Art Museums	2
Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie	2
Würzburg, Sammlung Hermann Gerlinger	1
Winterthur, Kunstmuseum	1
Washington, Library of Congress	1
Washington, International Gallery of Art	1
Sydney, Art Gallery New South Wales	1
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie	1
Schweiz, Privatbesitz	1
Sammlung Rolf Horn	1
Oberlin, Allen Memorial Art Museum	1
New York, Weintraub Gallery	1
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art	1
New York, Brooklyn Museum	1
Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art	1
Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum	1
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center	1
Minneapolis, Institute of Arts	1
Michigan, Slg. Adolph Alfred Taubmann	1
Mailand, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta	1
Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza	1
London, Sammlung Goodwin	1
Locarno, Museo Civico e Archeologico Castello Visconteo	1
Kunsthandel	1
Köln, Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln	1
Köln, Kunsthaus Lempertz	1
Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art	1
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle	1
Hagen, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum	1
Dresden, Skulpturensammlung	1
Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art	1
Chicago, The Art Institute	1
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts	1
Bern, Galerie Kornfeld und Cie.	1
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Museum Berggruen	1
Berlin, Galerie Michael Haas	1
Bergen, Kunstmuseum, Stenersen's Collection	1

 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

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).

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? 

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