Showing posts with label Kunstmarkt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kunstmarkt. Show all posts

Oct 10, 2019

Nazi Looted Art and the Fight for Open Data


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In 2000 the American newspaper Chicago Tribune examined the struggle to publish long hidden Holocaust-related art looting archives. 


The article, "KEY TO ART NAZIS STOLE MAY BE LOCKED AWAY"written by journalist and history professor Ron Grossman, recounts the struggle to provide open access to:


 a massive cache of World War II records documenting Nazi looting of works by some of the greatest artists in history 
The context of the article is that a United States government commission on Holocaust reparations is preparing to issue its final report, and there is fear that these crucial archives, which had been marked classified and locked away, will remain inaccessible despite the efforts of the Presidential Commission. The Commission is planning to publish a public database, but there are problems. Additional government funding is needed. A deadline looms.

Apr 21, 2019

FOLD3: Red Flag Name Fritz Nathan entered as Fritz Najean

Digital Humanities can help find information if the information is correctly digitized. But if names are misspelled, they will be invisible to a digital search function.

FOLD3, the excellent digital archive associated with NARA, the National Archives, has a problem with the transcriptions of the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names. And the problem seems to be getting worse, not better.
If one searches the ALIU Final Report for "Nathan" one will find Nathan Katz. The entry for Fritz Nathan will not appear in the search.





If one knows that there is an entry for Fritz Nathan in the Switzerland section of the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List and goes to the page where it appears, one can see on the image the entry for (*) Nathan, Dr. Fritz. However the list of searchable names on the left side of the screen shows, not Fritz Nathan, but a "Fritz Najean".






There is no such person as Fritz Najean in the actual ALIU Reports. However, if one searches on "Najean" the record will appear.

If, however, one searches on "Nathan", one will only find Nathan, Katz. Not Fritz Nathan.





This kind of data error should be of concern to digital humanities scholars, art historians, provenance researchers, and archivists.

see FOLD3 https://www.fold3.com/image/232006332 for Fritz Nathan aka Najean entry

For other ALIU Reports on Fold3 see:

CIRs: https://www.fold3.com/browse/114/hvMxROzkdWx-J5nVj

DIRs https://www.fold3.com/browse/114/hvMxROzkdSyceieW2

Final (including Red Flag List) https://www.fold3.com/browse/114/hvMxROzkd1ZVdGNv9C7Gz495S


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For more digital transcription errors concerning Fritz Nathan see also:


- National Archives: Holocaust era assets, where Nathan is digitized as "Mathan".



https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/military/part-2-notes.html

- Buehrle, Emil entry in the digitized publication of the ALIU Red Flag List, where Nathan is transcribed as "Natman".


https://www.lootedart.com/MVI3RM469661






Jan 4, 2019

Switzerland in the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names

Art Market Network Visualisation for Swiss dealers:  focus Theodor Fischer
source: Art Looting Investigation Unit Final Report

The 1946 ALIU Final Report broke the Red Flag List Name down into ten separate geographical areas:  Germany, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy,  Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Luxembourg. 

The network was International and overlapped But the ALIU tried to identify important actors by country.

In this post, we will look at the ALIU's listings for Switzerland. 


The place where two networks intersect is extremely interesting.
Red Flag Names in the Switzerland section of the 1946 Art Looting Investigation Unit Final Report meet Red Flag Names that mention Linz in the description


So far we have looked at a few individual names and their networks as described in the 1946 report.

In this post we change focus to examine the links to a geographical area: Switzerland.  Note: we are using the ALIU units category "Switzerland" for this analysis.
(An alternative approach would be to include every Red Flag entry that mentions the word "Switzerland" or a city in the country of Switzerland. This second approach would capture individuals not of Swiss nationality who had links to Switzerland which could be useful.)



Map of ALIU Red Flag names from the section on Switzerland, using the location information in the 1946 report.

The original ALIU texts are attached to each red data point.

Zoom on Zurich art dealers (source: ALIU 1946 Final Report)


The only data cleaning was to correct three misspellings discussed in a previous post: Seira==> Skira; Caillier ==> Cailler; and Natman ==>Nathan). Otherwise the texts displayed are exactly as written  in 1946 by the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit.

The ALIU entry for Tanner, President of the Federation of Swiss Art Dealers. The red marker is automatically located at Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 29, the location included in the ALIU Final Report.

Above is the Art Looting Investigation Unit 1946 entry for Tanner, President of the Federation of Swiss Art Dealers.
Below is the ALIU 1946 entry for Neupert Galerie.

Galerie Neupert in Zurich "Father and son art dealers, in contact with Hofer, Haberstock, Lohse and Fischer" 
(source: ALIU final Report)

Albert Skira (which had been mistranscribed in the ALIU digital version as Seira) had a very long entry in 1946.
Albert Skira in Geneva: "Owner of publishing firm'Editions d'Art', on British and American Proclaimed Lists
(source: ALIU Final Report)
Below is the ALIU 1946 entry for Dr. Fritz Nathan (elsewhere misspelled as "Natman".)


Dr Fritz Nathan in St Gallen: "Adviser to Buehrle, and intermediary between Fischer, Hofer and Buehrle"
(source: ALIU Fnal Report)

Misspellings such as those for Nathan (Natman), Skira (Seira) and Cailler (Caillier) generate errors in network analysis and have to be corrected before generating intersecting network graphs.

Below is the cluster for Switzerland - that is, Red Flag names that were presented in the "Switzerland" section of the Final Report.

The list of Red Flag Names in the Switzerland section of the ALIU Final Report can be visualised as a network.




Which names to focus on? We can look at the number of mentions in both the ALIU Red Flag list and the Switzerland section of this list for suggestions:

ALIU RED FLAGMENTIONSALIU SWITZERLANDMENTIONS
schenker155
hofer152hofer19
err139fischer15
goering93wendland15
muehlmann90err10
bornheim56reber7
haberstock56rosenberg7
lohse50buehrle5
kunstschutz47angerer4
goering’s40engel4
wendland40lohse4
dienststelle33matisse4
wuester32stoecklin4
angerer25frey3
fischer23goering3
schloss23neupert3
dietrich21schmidlin3
rochlitz20tanner3
rosenberg20ascona2
frapier19benzion2
bauer17bernheim2
voss17boehler2
engel16buemming2
posse16dreyfus2
reber16haberstock2
plietzsch15hirschland2
dequoy14levy2
loebl14montag2
heerengracht13nathan2
lange13oerlikon2
mueller13raeber2
martin12rochlitz2
behr11skira2
boehler11toepfer2
charles11truessel2
schmidt11veraguth2
gurlitt10versoix2
inquart10wuester2
katz10
lefranc10
paech10
scholz10
wildenstein10
kieslinger9
bachstitz8
boitel8
buehrle8
goepel8
goudstikker8
hamann8
hermssen8
petrides8
poellnitz8
postma8
bunjes7
devisenschutzkommando7
fabiani7
gritzbach7
heinz7
herbst7
hitler7
hoffmann7
holzapfel7
kajetan7
lagrand7
mandl7
perdoux7
poznan7
weinmueller7
bernheim6
brueschwiller6
friedlander6
garin6
gerard6
jansen6
kogl6
leegenhoek6
lippmann6
manteau6
mohnen6
morandotti6
rosenthal6
rothschild6
wolff6


We will gradually explore the different clusters within the Swiss and other networks in future posts.

For more on analysing art dealing networks, see also:





Lootedart.com: https://www.lootedart.com/MVI3RM469661
(which obtained its information from NARA http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/art/ accessed 4 February 2008