The RKD database publishes provenances for many artworks by Dutch artists and has excellent search functionalities. What kind of information can be found about artworks that passed through California at one time or another in their history? Below is a partial list:
Dataset name: Enhanced MoMA PRP Description: This enhanced Provenance dataset has been constructed from information available on the public internet site of the Museum of Modern Art MoMA. It merges the list of artworks on the MoMa Provenance Research Project page with provenance texts published on the MoMA's detailed item pages. It is intended to facilitate research into Holocaust-era provenance for scholars, art historians and families.
Original data sources that were merged to create new dataset:
Contents: 1. PRP Artworks with provenance (Artist,Title,Date,Medium,Dimensions,URL,Acc_Number,Department,Provenance,Publisher of Provenance,Author of Provenance) 2. About this file 3. Artists Count (pivot table with number of artworks by artists) 4. Department (pivot table with number of artworks by department) 5. Provenance text contains word "private" (pivot table with filter) 6. Provenance text contains name "Valentin" (pivot table with filter) 7. Provenance text contains the word "probably" (pivot table with filter) Publisher: OAD Date of Publication: October 31, 2019
Selection of artworks listed on the MoMA Provenance Research Project that contain the word "private" in the provenance text published on the museum website
"The V&A holds the only known copy of a complete inventory of 'Entartete Kunst' confiscated by the Nazi regime from public institutions in Germany, mostly during 1937 and 1938. The list of more than 16,000 artworks was produced by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) in 1942 or thereabouts. It seems that the inventory was compiled as a final record, after the sales and disposals of the confiscated art had been completed in the summer of 1941. The inventory’s two typescript volumes provide crucial information about the provenance, exhibition history and fate of each artwork.
The Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste has a large data base with a powerful search engine for cultural objects that were seized or stolen under the Nazis, most often from Jews.
To search Knoedler dealer records, the Getty provides a powerful tool.
Its online provenance research database contains more than 43,700 records transcribed from the 15 stock books of Goupil & Cie/Boussod, Valadon & Cie in Paris (1846–1919) as well as nearly 40,300 records transcribed from the 11 painting stock books of M. Knoedler & Co. in New York (1872–1970).