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.

Otto Wittmann's curious story

Victoria Dubourg by DEGAS at the Toledo Museum of Art
1963.45  http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/55168

Otto Wittmann, director of the Toledo Museum of Art from 1959 to 1977,  tells the "strange story" of how paintings by Degas and Cézanne came to Toledo in his interview "The museum in the creation of community".

According to the website of the Toledo Museum of Art, William Levis donated one Degas and one Cézanne to the Museum. Could these be the same Degas and Cézanne Otto Wittmann says were loaned to the National Gallery of Art by art dealers during World War II?

https://archive.org/details/museumincreation00witt/page/n7
see: Otto Wittmann by Wittmann, Otto, 1911-2001, interviewee; Cándida Smith, Richard, interviewer; Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, compiler; J. Paul Getty Trust, publisher

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WITTMANN: "I'll tell you one strange story about the National Gallery..."