Nazi looted art restitution claims case studies: Newsletter April 2023 – N°16

To read the complete newsletter, please see: https://www.restitutiecommissie.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Network-Newsletter-no.16-April2023.pdf

In this post, we reproduce the case studies published in April 2023 (Number 16) by the Network of European Restitution Committees on Nazi-Looted Art (originally published by the Advisory Commission)

• CASE STUDY Update: A German family hands over to France two paintings stolen in Brittany during the Occupation 
• CASE STUDY Restitution to heirs of Dr. Erich Stern 
• CASE STUDY The painter Hirschenhauser and a special work of art 
• CASE STUDY The Fritz Illner collection. Provenance Research in the Natural History Museum Vienna 

(Searchable text with some names highlighted)

Disambiguating the Balls

Is it possible to mix URIs from many sources and obtain something intelligible?
https://tb.semlab.io/share/BALL

BALL, an art dealing family operating in Dresden, Berlin, Paris, New York 

see: Firma Hermann Ball, Firma Ball, Graupe und Ball, A & R Ball, Hermann Ball, Alexander Ball, Richard Ball  

Hermann (Hirsch) Ball (1857 - 1924) and his sons Richard (born 1892) and Alexander operated an art dealership in Dresden, specializing in old masters, furniture and porcelain. The Firma Ball was registered in the Dresden Business Register in 1903 by Hermann Ball. His sons Richard and Alexander Ball joined the business in 1919.*

Alexander Ball, as noted in a previous post, was flagged by the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit in 1946 for having working closely with notorious art looter Karl Haberstock during the Nazi era.

Yet it is difficult to find out much about him.

Born in Germany, Alexander Ball (also known as Alexandre Ball, Alex Ball or A. Ball) worked in France, before escaping to the USA. In NY, he set up a dealership with his brother Richard Ball, known as  A. and R. Ball, (A&R Ball, A. & R. Ball, etc).