Showing posts with label Nazi-Looted Art. Show all posts

Sep 6, 2025

EVENT: Provenance and Restitution with Shared Knowledge Graphs September 15

Free and open to the public - online or in person - register by Sept 12!

On September 15, the German Lost Art Foundation has graciously invited me to give a talk on Provenance and Restitution in their series "Kolloquium Provenienzforschung".

https://kulturgutverluste.de/termine/kolloquium-provenienzforschung-shared-knowledge-graphs-tool-recovering

The topic is “Shared knowledge graphs as a tool in recovering looted cultural heritage and the histories of marginalized people“.

I hope the information provided will be helpful to cultural heritage professionals, provenance researchers, claimants, Holocaust scholars, art crime experts, museum and art market people.

(Do not let the words "knowledge graph" scare you. In this talk, I’ll show how we can connect information—people, places, artworks, events—into a kind of map of relationships. Think of it as a network of stories and connections. We can use this to retrieve lost information and to explore hidden networks over long periods of time, which is very useful for Nazi-looted art as well as other kinds of stolen or disappeared cultural heritage.)

The event will take place at the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, Außenstelle Berlin, Seydelstraße 18, 10117 Berlin.

It is also possible to join the event via Webex. (Register by Sep 12)

Registrations to:
German Lost Art Foundation
Heinrich Natho
Humboldtstr. 12 | 39112 Magdeburg
veranstaltungen@kulturgutverluste.de

---

See complete announcement below

Who owned Pissarros? What else did they own? Where are they today?

What else? German and French Jews who were persecuted by the Nazis often owned artworks from several different artists. If one focuses on claims for one artist, can one then expand the search to see what other artworks were stolen?

In this post we look at artworks by Pissarro which are being searched for by the families of Jewish art collectors who were plundered and persecuted during the Nazi era. And then we ask: what other artworks were owned by (and possibly stolen from) these same collectors?

To gather these artworks, and the information about them, we will use Wikidata queries. The graph structure enables us to start from one point (the collector) and move to other artworks owned all around the world. (if the ownership information has been entered in Wikidata.

Databases consulted: Lostart.de and ErrProject

PART ONE

Lostart: Collectors whose heirs are searching for PISSARRO artworks lost or seized during the Nazi era:

Aaron, Clémence Georgette

Blumstein (Familie)*

Bondi, Felix

Braunthal, Max

Dreyfus, Edgar*

Flavian (Friedmann), Catherine und Salomon

Friedmann, David (Breslau)

Glaser, Prof. Dr. Curt

Goldschmidt, Hedwig und Jacob*

Hatvany, Baron Ferenc

Heine, Max & Margarete

Herz, Dr. Emanuel Emil

Hinrichsen, Dr. Henri

Kainer, Margret und Ludwig

Katzenellenbogen, Ludwig und Estella

Lindauer, Jules

Mendel Kaplan

Nathan, Martha

Ploschitzki, Johanna (geb. Zender)

Posen, Anna und Sidney

Sachs, Carl (Sammlung)

Schusterman, Grégoire

Semmel, Richard

Silberberg, Max (Sammlung)

Simon, Hugo

Sommerguth, Gertrud und Alfred

Steinthal, Fanny und Max (Sammlung)

Stern-Lippmann, Margaretha und Siegbert Stern

Strauss, Ottmar

Westfeld, Walter

ERRProject: French Jews whose artworks by Pissarro were looted by the ERR Nazi looting organization

Bruno Stahl

Claude Raphael, Paris, France

Frau Jules Rouff, Paris, France

Galerie Marcel Bernheim et Cie., Paris, France

Georges Levy, Paris, France

Georges Schick, Nice, France

Hedwige/Hedwig Zach/Zak, Nice/Paris, France

Hugo Simon, Paris, France

Jules et Madeleine Lindauer, Paris, France

Max Heilbronn, Paris, France

Mr. Kantorowitz, Paris, France

Oskar and Marianne Goldschmidt, Neuilly, France

Paul Etlin, Saint-Marcel par Aubagne, Bouches du Rhone, France

Paul Rosenberg, Bordeaux, France

Pierre Wertheimer, Paris, France

Raoul Meyer, Paris, France

Roger Levy , Neuilly s/Seine, France

Salomon Flavian, Paris, France

Simon Bauer, Paris, France

Remarks: There are 48 German and French art collectors who owed Pissarros in these Nazi-looted art databases. Hugo Simon and Jules Lindauer appear in both LostArt and ERRPROJECT but otherwise there is little overlap. To have a more complete view of Pissarros looted from (or acquired under duress from) Jewish collectors, one would need to consult databases in The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Poland, and elsewhere. In short, this is a glimpse or a sampling, not a complete overview.

The appearance of any of the above names in a provenance for any artwork is an obvious red flag.

Are there any patterns we might be able to detect using the Wikidata general knowledge graph?

To find out, we will group the Wikidata identifiers (where they exist) in a variable called ?LostPissarro using VALUES

Wikidata Query

#title:Pissarro owners in Lostart.de

SELECT ?myQids ?myQidsLabel ?myQidsDescription

WHERE {

VALUES ?myQids { wd:Q126835436 wd:Q94292296 wd:Q124216935 wd:Q125884667 wd:Q97133770 wd:Q112450 wd:Q324935 wd:Q55842863 wd:Q98887 wd:Q1334632 wd:Q123758642 wd:Q19295051 wd:Q1361426 wd:Q110491536}

?myQids rdfs:label ?myQidsLabel.

#?ownedby wdt:P127 ?myQids.

# ?ownedby wdt:P18 ?image.

SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],mul,en". }

FILTER (LANG(?myQidsLabel) = "en")

}

WD:

* not found

Q126835436,Q94292296,Q124216935,Q125884667,Q97133770,Q112450,Q324935,Q55842863,Q1334632,Q98887,Q123758642,Q19295051,Q1361426,Q110491536,Q131534758,Q131424365,Q104532626,Q22670686,Q131534959,Q94867126,Q125811605,Q125811605,Q20191393,Q1913457,Q1635718,Q94788180,Q108549525,Q126092724,Q100323618,Q2037856,Q2546745

myQids	myQidsLabel	myQidsDescription
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q55842863	Max Hermann Heine	German Jewish art collector (1877-1933)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q94292296	Felix Bondi	German lawyer and art collector (1860-1934)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q97133770	David Friedmann	German Jewish businessman and art collector -(1857-1942)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q110491536	Estella Katzenellenbogen	German Jewish art collector persecuted by the Nazis (1886-1991)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q123758642	Margret Kainer	German Jewish art collector (1894-1968)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q124216935	Max Braunthal	German Jewish art collector (1877-1946)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q125884667	Salomon Flavian	art collector
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q126835436	Clémence Georgette Aaron	French art collector, plundered by Nazis (b. 1867
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q98887	Henri Hinrichsen	German music publisher, died in Auschwitz in 1942
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q112450	Curt Glaser	German Jewish art historian and art collector persecuted by Nazis, refugee (1879-1943)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q324935	Ferenc Hatvany	Hungarian painter and art collector (1881-1958)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1334632	Emil Herz	German publisher (1877-1971)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1361426	Ludwig Katzenellenbogen	Jewish industrialist, refugee, Holocaust victim, husband of Tilla Durieux (1877–1944)
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q19295051	Ludwig Kainer	German draughtsperson and art collector (1885-1967)

WikidataQuery to see what was owned by these individuals

https://w.wiki/CUi7

https://w.wiki/CUqd

https://w.wiki/CUqf

with image of painting https://w.wiki/CUqq

https://w.wiki/CVCX

https://w.wiki/CVFT

with images of paintings https://w.wiki/CVJw

https://w.wiki/CVM5

LostArtQids https://w.wiki/CVfd

LostArtQids with objects owned https://w.wiki/CVfg

Question: How many of the artworks searched for by

Q126835436,Q94292296,Q124216935,Q125884667,Q97133770,Q112450,Q324935,Q55842863,Q1334632,Q98887,Q123758642,Q19295051,Q1361426,Q110491536,Q131534758,Q131424365,Q104532626,Q22670686,Q131534959,Q94867126,Q125811605,Q125811605,Q20191393,Q1913457,Q1635718,Q94788180,Q108549525,Q126092724,Q100323618,Q2037856,Q2546745

Are represented in Wikidata?

Task: Compare Lostart listings to Wikidata listings

May 16, 2025

Pinakos Inc joint owner network in the Knoedler files

Pinakos, owned by Rudolph Heinemann, is a name that pops up in Nazi-looted art and false provenances.

However, the Pinakos name has a tendency to be scrubbed from provenance records, replaced either by its owner, Heinemann, or, occasionally, its frequent partner, Knoedler.

This is a pity because while Heinemann and Knoedler operated over long periods of time, including long before WWII, Pinakos is a name that appears only at very specific times. (So specific that it can be used to date undated ledger entrees.)

Pinakos Inc is rarely found alone in the Knoedler ledgers. Usually it appears as a "joint owner". An interesting pattern is Pinakos as first a "joint owner" and then, without the other partner, a seller in a separate ledger entree.

Pinakos Inc often appears in leger entrees "carried forward". Some transactions involve exchanges or returns with several different Knoedler numbers.

This post examines "joint owners" which appear in the Knoedler ledgers together with Pinakos.

Tracing itineraries of Nazi-looted art with AI

Summary of news article "Landscape with Plunder" by Judd Tully with Google NotebookLLM

http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/news/tully/tully8-30-96.asp

PROMPT: "How did the Degas go from Friedrich Gutmann to Daniel Searle. Please name every entity involved and their role."

VIDEO Detecting Deception: A Computational Approach to Detecting Nazi-looted Art

Description*:

Researching a Rigged Game: Open Source Data & the Trade of Cultural Objects, September 14 and 15, 2023. This YouTube video transcript presents a computational method for detecting potentially Nazi-looted art by analyzing the language used in artwork provenance records. The speaker, Laurel Zuckerman, explains how counting words indicating uncertainty, unreliability, and anonymity can reveal patterns suggestive of deception, drawing inspiration from her own experience with a family artwork. A software tool is demonstrated that allows users to upload provenance data and custom lists of keywords to quantify these indicators. While acknowledging limitations and the need for further research, the approach offers a scalable and objective way to prioritize artworks for closer scrutiny regarding their wartime history.

Alsdorf at the Art Institute of Chicago: Provenance Research Dataset

The Art Institute of Chicago announced yesterday that it plans to restitute to Nepal one of the objects looted from it. The looted object, Buddha Sheltered by the Serpent King Muchalinda, (Reference Number 2014.1030) was gifted to the AIC by its trustee Marilynn Alsdorf in 2014.

One may recall the Nazi looted art case filed by the heirs of Carlota Landsberg for the Picasso Woman in White that Marilynn Alsdorf acquired from art dealer Stephen Hahn in 1975 with the provenance "Private Collection, Paris."

Or one may recall the investigations by Crain’s Chicago Business and ProPublica into "at least nine objects once owned by James and Marilynn Alsdorf that have been sent back to their countries of origin since the late 1980s".

Or one may simply be intrigued by hundreds of objects in a major US museum that still lack clear provenance despite a history of acquiring looted objects by their donors. Or, perhaps, the curious way the story is told by the museum when forced to return an obviously looted object.

RESEARCH DATASET

The following dataset includes objects linked to James or Marilynn Alsdorf with the basic object information, credit line and provenances published by the Art Institute of Chicago on its website in June 2024.

VIEW DATASET

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQrxDJ9bsWEeiFE8Jx1kBapk4GjnurmjQthd-H9qG2jmV_e07fFReJvDrAYLsbk4mrl1jUltK17znhL/pubhtml?gid=527394334&single=true

Download CSV file:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQrxDJ9bsWEeiFE8Jx1kBapk4GjnurmjQthd-H9qG2jmV_e07fFReJvDrAYLsbk4mrl1jUltK17znhL/pub?gid=527394334&single=true&output=csv

Description

This file contains provenance information related to artworks associated with the Alsdorf collection. Here are the key details:

Rows: 317 entries
Columns: 14
Main Fields:
- RetrievalDate: All entries have the same date, "19June2024".
- Url: Direct links to the artworks on the Art Institute of Chicago’s website.
- Artist: Names of artists where available (only 44 entries have this).
- Title: Titles of the artworks.
- Medium: The materials used in the artworks.
- Credit Line: How the artwork was acquired or credited (e.g., "Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf").
- Acc Num: Accession numbers of the artworks.
- Provenance: Historical ownership information, partially available (161 entries have data).
- Exhibitions: Exhibition history (120 entries have data).
- References: Completely empty column.
- Date Created: The estimated or known date of creation.
- Dimensions: Physical dimensions of the artworks.
- Publication History: Records of where the artwork has been published (136 entries have data).
- Status: Mostly empty, but one entry states: "Loot-Deaccessioned for repatriation to Nepal Museum".

Feb 24, 2025

Restitutions by the Bavarian State Painting Collections since 1998 (summarized in English)

Restitutions

Overview of the Restitutions by the Bavarian State Painting Collections

https://www.pinakothek.de/de/museum/forschung/provenienzforschung/restitutionen

Since 1998, the Bavarian State Painting Collections have restituted 24 works from 15 collections. On this page, you can find more information about past restitutions.

March 13, 2024: Restitution of a Painting and Two Sculptures to the Heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt

The Bavarian State Painting Collections and the Bavarian National Museum have restituted a painting by Hans Wertinger (Count Palatine Philipp, Bishop of Freising, Inv. No. 12030) and two 16th-century Nuremberg sculptures(wood statuettes "Adam and Eve", Inv. No. 53/137 and 53/138) to the heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt (1882–1955), a Berlin banker and entrepreneur.

The painting was transferred to the Bavarian State Painting Collections in 1953 as part of former Nazi art holdings, and the sculptures were acquired by the Bavarian National Museum that same year through an exchange.

Jakob Goldschmidt, the Collector

Jakob Goldschmidt was one of the most influential bankers of the Weimar Republic and was considered a central figure in the financial world. He held a leading position on the board of the Danat Bank (Darmstädter and Nationalbank) and served on more than 100 supervisory boards.

Goldschmidt began collecting art during World War I and built a significant collection. He was also a patron of Berlin museums and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. His villa in Potsdam's Neubabelsberg district, built in 1921, was adorned with numerous artworks, as was the villa he acquired in Berlin’s Matthäikirchstraße in 1929.

Following the Great Depression of 1931, when Danat Bank collapsed, the Nazis blamed him for the banking crisis. In April 1933, he fled to Switzerland and later to New York in 1936.

The Nazis imposed severe financial restrictions on him, including a Reich Flight Tax of over 1.8 million Reichsmarks, revoked his German citizenship in 1940, and confiscated his remaining assets in Germany in 1941.

Goldschmidt managed to smuggle part of his art collection abroad with the help of industrialist Fritz Thyssen. However, much of his collection remained in Germany, with major portions being auctioned off in 1936 and 1938.

Provenance of the Works

The Hans Wertinger painting was purchased in June 1936 by Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter of Franconia, at the Hugo Helbing auction house in Frankfurt.
Around 300 works from Goldschmidt’s collection were anonymously listed as coming from a "Berlin collector."
The two sculptures were also auctioned in 1936 but remained unsold. They were later offered again in March 1938 at Lempertz Auction House in Cologne.
The sculptures’ provenance traces them to Johannes Hinrichsen, an art dealer from Bad Aussee, who likely acquired them at Lempertz and later sold them to Swiss arms manufacturer Emil Bührle.
In 1953, the Bavarian National Museum acquired them from Bührle through a trade involving a 14th-century Pietà.

It is undeniable that Goldschmidt’s financial downfall was a direct result of Nazi persecution. The forced sales of his art collection would not have taken place without the Nazi regime, classifying them as persecution-related asset seizures.

As a result, the Bavarian Ministry of Science and Arts approved the restitution.

Statements on the Restitution

Markus Blume, Minister for Science and Arts:
"Provenance research results are clear: Jakob Goldschmidt was wrongfully persecuted by the Nazi regime and dispossessed of his wealth. Returning these works is not just a given—it is an ethical obligation. Restituting stolen cultural property restores justice and contributes to addressing Nazi crimes. I sincerely thank the Bavarian State Painting Collections and the Bavarian National Museum for their meticulous research that led to this restitution."

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Maaz, Director of the Bavarian State Painting Collections:
"Hans Wertinger was a masterful Renaissance portraitist. We are honored to return this exceptional artwork to Goldschmidt’s descendants, ensuring that this remarkable collection’s history is remembered."

Dr. Frank Matthias Kammel, Director of the Bavarian National Museum:
"Restituting the two statuettes from the workshop of Veit Stoß is an important moment for the museum."

Statement from the Goldschmidt heirs:
"The heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt are pleased with the restitution, which acknowledges that the loss of these artworks was the result of Nazi persecution and anti-Semitic propaganda."

Previous Restitutions

May 9, 2022: Restitution of "Ulanen auf dem Marsch" by Hans von Marées to the Max Stern Estate

Following a 2015 restitution request from the Max Stern Estate, the case was brought before the Advisory Commission for Nazi-Looted Art Restitution.
The commission recommended returning the painting under two conditions:
1. The Max Stern Estate cannot sell the painting for 10 years, allowing time for a possible primary victim to be identified.
2. If new evidence suggests that the sale was not Nazi-related, the foundation must return the painting to the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
The painting was restituted on May 9, 2022 under these conditions.

August 27, 2021: Restitution of "Frühlingslandschaft" by Johann Sperl to the Heirs of Sigmund Waldes

Research confirmed that Sigmund Waldes lost the painting due to Nazi persecution in 1939/41.

May 31, 2021: Restitution of "Fischerboote bei Frauenchiemsee" by Joseph Wopfner to the Heirs of Alfred Isay

Originally planned for March 2020, the restitution was delayed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

April 23, 2021: Restitution of a Late Medieval Panel Depicting St. Florian

The art dealership A.S. Drey had owned the panel before the Nazis confiscated it.

August 5, 2019: Restitution of Nine Artworks to the Heirs of Julius and Semaya Franziska Davidsohn

The couple’s collection was confiscated in Munich in 1938.

July 25, 2018: Restitution of a Painting by Ernst Immanuel Müller

The work originally belonged to Ludwig Friedmann, a Nazi victim.

July 21, 2017: Restitution of "The Raising of Lazarus"

Formerly part of the James von Bleichröder collection.

May 15, 2013: Restitution of Two Max Pechstein Watercolors

Belonged to Curt Glaser and George Behrens.

Streit um NS-Raubkunst: «Der Fisch stinkt vom Kopf»

and a Marian painting by Cristoforo de' Moretti.

June 23, 2008: Restitution of a Willem Kalf Still Life

Returned to Peter Block, grandson of collector Josef Block.

September 14, 2005: Restitution of "Musical Entertainment" by Fritz Schider

Originally owned by Max Meirowsky.

October 5, 2004: Restitution of "Twilight at Lake Garda" by Hans Thoma

Formerly in the Ottmar Strauss collection.

March 13, 2000: Restitution of "The Three Ages of Man" by Leopold Graf Kalckreuth

Returned to the heirs of Elisabeth Glanville.

****

Press

For more information about the current state of Nazi-era provenance research in the Bavarian State Paintings Collections see:

Nazi-looted art: Red alert

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/ns-raubkunst-staatsgemaeldesammlung-muenchen-bayern-provenienz-picasso-klee-beckmann-li.3205143?reduced=true

Dispute over Nazi-looted art: “The fish stinks from the head”

https://www.antenne.de/nachrichten/bayern/ns-raubkunst-anwaelte-sehen-freistaat-in-der-pflicht

Jewish heirs: “Bavaria betrayed us” - Claims Conference speaks of “breach of trust”

https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/kultur/juedische-erben-bayern-hat-uns-betrogen-claims-conference-spricht-von-vertrauensbruch/

Nazi-looted art scandal in Bavaria
Concealed and abducted

The Bavarian State Painting Collection in Munich is sitting on Nazi-looted art. To the detriment of heirs, it does not pass on its knowledge about the artworks.

https://taz.de/NS-Raubkunst-Skandal-in-Bayern/!6070973/

Fierce criticism of Bavaria's handling of Nazi-looted art

https://www.zeit.de/news/2025-02/20/vertuschungsvorwuerfe-gegen-bayerns-staatsgemaeldesammlungen

***

The Glanville Case

In 1999 the Glanville family approached the Commission for assistance in locating a triptych looted from their home in Vienna when the family fled the Nazis in 1938.

Marietta Glanville described the looted painting as "an icon of my childhood." Her mother, Elizabeth Glanville, had searched for the looted von Kalckreuth painting since 1948. In 1971 she learned that the painting was in the Bavarian State Paintings Collection, Munich which had acquired it from a private collector in 1942. But, in the same year, her claim was denied by the Bavarian Compensation Office on the grounds that the deadlines for restitution had expired in 1948. In 1983 Elizabeth Glanville died without having been able to recover her painting."

https://www.lootedartcommission.com/glanville-family

Jan 9, 2025

Wikidata Queries and AI LLMs: better dataviz with ChatGPT4O

Paintings owned by family and business connections to Presidents of the Swiss Art Dealers Association

The above graph, generated by a Wikidata query, can be made easier to understand with help from AI.

Steps:

1. Run Wikidata query:

Short link to Wikidata Query:

https://w.wiki/Cdse

2. Download CSV from Wikidata Query

3. Upload into ChatGPT4o with the following prompt:

"please graph - pay attention to edges"

Here is a graph representing the relationships between Swiss Art Dealer Association Presidents, their business or family connections, and associated paintings. The edges are labeled to indicate the type of connection, and node colors differentiate between SwissArtpres (blue), connections (green), and paintings (orange). Let me know if you'd like further adjustments

chatGPT40 : "Here is the updated graph with adjusted label positions to minimize overlap. Labels are placed with a background for clarity, and the spacing between nodes has been increased to make the connections easier to read. Let me know if you need further refinements! "

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