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

Looted art laundering networks in the USA: Cassirer v Thyssen

Rue St. Honoré, après midi, effet de pluie by Camille Pissarro is the object of a claim for restitution: Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation

 "By 1951, the Painting had made its way to the U.S. after changing hands several times in Germany. In July, the Frank Perls Gallery (“Perls”) in Beverly Hills, California, sold the Painting to an art collector, Sidney Brody, for $14,850.^[11]Less than a year later, in February of 1952, Perls (for Brody) consigned the Painting with Knoedler Gallery (which you may remember for other reasons) for sale in New York.^[12]Missouri-based art collector, Sydney Schoenberg, was next to purchase the Painting; he sold it through New York’s Stephen Hahn Gallery several years later on consignment in 1975 or 1976"

- Case Review: Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, Center for Art Law

https://itsartlaw.org/2019/06/12/case-review-cassirer-v-thyssen-bornemisza-collection-foundation/

https://archive.is/N01Tn#selection-839.0-855.186

On Sidney Brody's rapid return of the Pissarro to Perls, see Iker Seisdedos's article in El Pais: "The Thyssen’s disputed Pissarro: a masterpiece that symbolizes the ongoing struggle to return Nazi-looted art":

"The painting arrived in Los Angeles in the possession of a German merchant called Frank Perls, who was Jewish – “ironically,” notes Cassirer, who describes him as a “super-thief.” During the war, Perls had worked as a translator for the US Army. He sold the work to a noted art lover called Sidney Brody, who was also Jewish and returned it a few months later because, according to Cassirer, he found out that it was a looted piece. A year later, Perls sold the painting again to the heir to a department store fortune in Saint Louis, where it remained for 20 years. It was offered to Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza through a well-known New York dealer, Stephen Hahn."

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-05-21/the-thyssens-disputed-pissarro-a-masterpiece-that-symbolizes-the-ongoing-struggle-to-return-nazi-looted-art.html

https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=VGPS0A541611

On Stephen Hahn, see the 2005 lawsuit filed against him jointly by two different families who were seeking to reclaim Holocaust-linked art. Artnews reported on the lawsuit in "Judge Supports Suit to Reclaim Profits from Nazi Loot".  

"NEW YORK—A California judge has ruled that two families may proceed with their lawsuit against art dealer Stephen Hahn to recover the profits Hahn is alleged to have earned on sales, some 30 years ago, of works by Pablo Picasso and Camille Pissarro that had been looted during World War II. This is believed to be the first case in the U.S. in which the heirs of Nazi victims have sought compensation from an intermediary.

Claude Cassirer and Thomas C. Bennigson had filed the joint complaint in Santa Barbara, Calif., against Hahn, former president of the Art Dealers Association of America, on July 19. They claimed that Hahn had sold the two paintings without the consent of the legal owners and therefore must hold the profits for them. All three men live in California."

The Artnews article mentions two separate cases in which Hahn played a role. One was Picasso's Femme en Blanc :

"The Picasso was looted by the Nazis in 1940 from Paris art dealer Justin K. Thannhauser, to whom it had been sent for safekeeping by Bennigson’s grandmother Carlota Landsberg, of Berlin. Dealer Hahn imported the painting from France in 1975 and sold it a year later to James and Marilyn Alsdorf of Chicago for $357,000, the complaint states. Bennigson located the Picasso, now worth some $10 million, in 2002, when Marilyn Alsdorf prepared to sell the painting, and the Art Loss Register identified it as stolen. Bennigson has filed a separate claim against Marilyn Alsdorf."

(see also: "The FBI seizes disputed Picasso" Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-oct-27-et-quick27.5-story.html) 27 Oct 2004 — The circa-1922 painting, “Femme en Blanc” (Woman in White) is believed to have been stolen by the Nazis during World War II from the grandmother of Oakland-based heir Thomas Bennigson. The painting was purchased in 1975 by Chicago art collectors James and Marilyn Alsdorf before its tie to the Nazis was discovered. In 2002, Bennigson sued to have the painting returned to him. Although the painting has been taken into U.S. custody, an FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday that the artwork will remain in Alsdorf’s residence until the courts can determine the rightful owner. )

The other was Pissarro's Rue St. Honoré, après midi, effet de pluie:

"Cassirer’s grandmother Lilly Cassirer-Neubauer, of Munich, was forced to sell the Pissarro to a Nazi agent in 1939 for a nominal amount before she fled from Germany. Hahn subsequently acquired the painting and, circa 1976, sold it to Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, who later transferred it over to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation in Madrid."