Showing posts with label dataviz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dataviz. Show all posts
Sep 30, 2021
Jun 9, 2021
Data Visualization Test
How to grasp the scale of the transfer from Jewish art collectors persecuted by the Nazi to museums in the United States, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, as well as countries in South America?
Some experiments in data visualization.
First, an overview (attention: the figures are not real, they are only to test the visualization.)
The Nazis looted so much. Destroyed so many lives. How to represent this in a way that is understandable, meaningful - and actionable?
The devil is in the detail.
May 26, 2021
Nazi Art Looting Networks: Adolf Wuester
Zoom on a few of the individuals in Adolf Wuester's network (according to the Art Looting Investigation Unit in 1946)
Abels Brothers, Hermann | Cologne, Komoedienstrasse 26 | Dealers | Specialists in 16th to 19th century painting and graphic arts |
Bammann, Hans | Dusseldorf, Blumenstrasse 11 | Dealer, drafted into the army in 1942 and transferred to the ERR in Paris in December 1943 at the request of Lohse and Wuester | Believed to have acted as agent for art purchases in France for museums of Dusseldorf, Cologne, Aachen and Bonn |
Breker, Prof Arno | Starnberg (Buchhof uber Pocha), Bavaria | Celebrated Nazi sculptor, often in Paris during the war | Took part in arranging tour of French artists through Germany |
Goepel, Dr Erhard | Leipzig, Stieghtstrasse 76 | Official Linz agent and buyer in Holland under Posse and Voss | Bought extensively in Holland and also travelled frequently in Belgium and France |
Knothe, Dr | Secretary of the German Embassy, Paris and reported to have worked with Wuester on art matters for von Ribbentrop and possibly Goebbels | ||
Kuetgens, Dr Felix | Aachen, Heinrichsallee 18 | Member of Kunstschutz, Paris | Mentioned as also in charge of Kunstschutz in Serbia and Greece |
Loewenisch, Albert | Cologne Paris, 8 ave Victor Massel | Purchasing agent for the Gauleitung Dusseldorf-Koln-Aachen-Bonn, and one of the official representatives of German museums in France | Contact of Hermssen, Wuester, Weinmueller and Lange |
May, Frau Wismer | Zurich, Seefeldstrasse 90 | Colleague of Wuester in the art section of the German Embassy, Paris | Ardent Nazi and well connected in high Party circles |
Mohnen, Wilhelm Jacob | German national | Captured in Rome, 5 February 1945, after taking refuge in the Vatican | |
Muthmann, Dr | Director of Museum of Krefeld | In contact with Wuester, Paul Cailleux, Dr Kurt Martin and Dr Hopp | |
Pfannstiel, Arthur | Paris | German painter and dealer, resident in Paris before the war | Member of staff of ERR, Bordeaux and of GIS |
Rademacher, Dr Bernard | Bonn | Assistant at the Landesmuseum, Bonn | Agent for art purchases in France |
von Waldthausen | In charge of interior decoration of the German Embassy, Paris, 1940 | Assisted by Wuester, 1942 | |
Wuester, Adolf | Bernau, Bavaria Bonn Schloesel | Painter and amateur dealer, long-time pre-war resident of Paris | Chief agent in France for acquisition of works of art for Ribbentrop |
Blot | Paris | Dealer, dealt with Wuester | |
Cailleux, Paul | Paris, 136 rue du Fbg St Honore | Dealer in contact with Rochlitz, Wuester, Frau Dietrich, Haberstock | Knew Lohse, who claims to have freed his wife from a concentration camp |
Cloots, F G | Paris, 14 rue de l’Abbaye | Small dealer specialising in 17th century Dutch painting | In contact with Wuester and Hofer |
Gairac, Georges | Paris, 17 rue de Seine | French art dealer who sold to Wuester and Bornheim | |
Gerard, Raphael Louis Felix | Paris, 4 ave de Messine | Dealt in confiscated pictures; main source of supply to Wuester and other German buyers | Indicted by French Government (Seine Tribunal, Judge Frapier) |
de Haucke, Cesar Monge | Paris, 14 rue du Cherche-Midi | Dealer active in Paris and New York before the war | Active in Paris during the occupation; in contact with Wuester, Haberstock and Hofer; documentary evidence in Unit files |
Kalebjian, Irene | Paris, 52 bis ave d’Iena | Schenker documents indicate sales to German buyers | One of Wuester’s chief sources |
Leegenhoek, M O | Paris, 1 rue de Rennes/230 blvd Raspail | Belgian national | Prominent restorer and subsequent dealer who sold extensively to Hofer, Lohse, Wendland, Wuester, Dietrich, Haberstock, Miedl, Goepel and the great majority of important German purchasers |
Mandl, Victor | Paris, 9 rue du Boetie | German refugee dealer, formerly active in Berlin | Highly important figure in German art purchases in Paris |
Montag, Charles | Sevres Meudon Val Fleury, 72 rue de Paris | Swiss; naturalised French | Artist and dealer |
Renand, Georges | Paris, 30 quai de Bethune | Sold to Ribbentrop through Wuester | Schenker documents indicate sales to German buyers |
Schmit, Jean | Paris, 22 rue de Charonne | Important antique dealer and decorating concern | Dealt with Bornheim, Angerer, Haberstock and other Germans brought to him by Wuester |
Schoeller, Andre | Paris, 13 rue de Teheran | Well known expert in French 19th century painting | President of the Art Editors Syndicate and appraiser for the Hotel Drouot |
Toulinot (Toulino) | Paris, 8 ave Victor Massel | Small dealer | Partner of Loewenisch |
de Trevise, Duc | Paris | Pre-war sponsor and friend of Rochlitz and Wuester | |
Trotti, Count Rene Avogli | Paris, 1/88 rue de Grenelle | Well known art dealer of Italian birth; in touch with many German art agents during the war, particularly Wuester, an old friend | Also did business with Haberstock |
Wuester Adolf | See Germany | ||
Raeber, Dr Willi | Basle, St Albans Anlage 68 | Prominent art dealer | Vice president of the Swiss syndicate of art dealers and its most active member |
Wendland, Dr Hans | Versoix/Geneva | German national | Art dealer, resident alternately in France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany since World War I |
For transcription of the Art Looting Investigation Unit Final Report and the Red Flag list of Names see lootedart.com here.
Apr 30, 2020
Tracing Jewish Art Collectors and other #LostArtPeople by Place of Death
In our previous post, we introduced the idea of using Wikidata Queries to Trace Jewish art collectors and their collections.
What information or feature might help us to identify them?
What do we know about them?
The above criteria is very large and not specific to Jewish collectors in the Nazi era. How can we further narrow the criteria? One element that distinguishes the fates of Jewish individuals from others is how and where they died, and whether or not they were interned, spoliated or became refugees.
What kind of markers can we look for in the data?
All of the above correspond to "Properties" that are defined in Wikidata. Not all these properties have been updated for every Wikidata item. But they could be.
How to do this?
There were so many Nazi camps in so many countries (see below) that we look for a way to take each one into account without necessarily naming each one in a query.
One way is to use Wikidata's "instance of" (P31).
We can tell the query to list people who died in a place that is defined as any of the following things:
We might still miss a few of the camps (due to the crowdsourcing nature of Wikidata, not every item is coded in exactly the same way,) but this should be a good start.
There are several ways to do OR type queries in Wikidata.
We will use the very straight forward UNION. (Please do not hesitate to suggest better ways).
WHERE {
{ ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q328468.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q152081. } UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placediedwdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q2583015.}
To make the Wikidata query run faster and avoid time outs, we will first check that the place of death has been entered by someone into Wikidata.
Then, instead of specifying, as we did in the previous query, that we want to list the people who died in the specific Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau
we want to request people who died in any place coded as an instance of Q328468, Q152081, Q153813 or Q2583015
This should include all the Nazi camps and ghettos listed at the bottom of this post
_______
_______
note: careful: the filter should read datedied "greater than or equal to" 1933. Sometimes the greater than symbol gets garbled on this blog
(Notice the word OPTIONAL? We are telling Wikidata to get the information if it is available but not to worry about it if it is not. Since we want to understand who these individuals were, the context of their lives and their relations with others, we have added much optional information to the query. This is not strictly speaking necessary, but possibly useful for future network analysis)
The Wikidata Sparql Query can present the results in many different ways.
As a table.
As a graph.
With photos
We can zoom in close to view certain specific elements that are hard to see when looking at lots of data.
We also get an idea of where data might be missing.
Try the query yourself. It shows only those art people who died in a Nazi camp or ghetto. What one immediately notices is how many are missing.
How to see what is present and what is absent will be the subject of our next post.
Link to Query
https://query.wikidata.org/#%0A%0ASELECT%20DISTINCT%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3Fpic%20%3Fdatedied%20%3FplacediedLabel%20%3Fplacedied%20%3Fchild%20%3FchildLabel%20%3Fownedby%20%3FownedbyLabel%20%3Fdepicts%20%3FdepictsLabel%20%3Fdepictedby%20%3FdepictedbyLabel%20%3FcountryLabel%20%3Fownerof%20%3FownerofLabel%20%3Fspouse%20%3Femployer%20%3FemployerLabel%20%3FspouseLabel%20%3Fmother%20%3FmotherLabel%20%3Ffather%20%3FfatherLabel%20%3Fsibling%20%3FsiblingLabel%20%3Finvestby%20%3FinvestbyLabel%20%3Fsigperson%20%3FsigpersonLabel%20%3Fparty%20%3FpartyLabel%20%3Fpartner%20%3FpartnerLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ1792450.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ1007870.%20%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ173950.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP921%20wd%3AQ328376.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ10732476.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ446966.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ22132694.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ674426.%7D%0A%0A%0ASERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%22%20%7D%0A%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3Fplacedied.%20%20%0A%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ328468.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ152081.%20%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ153813.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ153813.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ2583015.%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP18%20%3Fpic.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP127%20%3Fownedby.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP570%20%3Fdatedied.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3Fplacedied.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP180%20%3Fdepicts.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Fplunder.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1830%20%3Fownerof.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP108%20%3Femployer.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP569%20%3Fbirth.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP40%20%3Fchild.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP214%20%3FVIAF_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP19%20%3Fplace_birth.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP244%20%3FLibrary_of_Congress_authority_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP227%20%3FGND_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP245%20%3FULAN_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP26%20%3Fspouse.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP27%20%3Fcountry.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3342%20%3Fsigperson.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP102%20%3Fparty.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1327%20%3Fpartner.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1840%20%3Finvestby.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP25%20%3Fmother.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP22%20%3Ffather.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3373%20%3Fsibling.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1299%20%3Fdepictedby.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP39%20%3Fposition.%20%7D%0A%23%20FILTER%20%28YEAR%28%3Fbirth%29%20%3D%201860%20%26amp%3B%26amp%3B%20YEAR%28%3Fbirth%29%20%26lt%3B%3D%201990%29%0AFILTER%20%28YEAR%28%3Fdatedied%29%20%3E%3D%201933%20%29%0A%7D%0ALIMIT%2020000
SELECT ?placedied ?placediedLabel
WHERE
{
{ ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q328468.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q152081. } UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q2583015.}
SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en". }
}
(Short link to query and result - Try it!)
In this post, we begin to look at how we might identify these Jewish individuals, many of whom have been not only forgotten but deliberately written out of history.
What information or feature might help us to identify them?
What do we know about them?
- They died after 1932
- They were connected to the arts in some way: as collectors, dealers, curators, historians, curators, museum directors, gallery owners, possibly as artists
- Their names might have appeared in exhibitions or catalogs as owners or lenders or donors or experts, or in books or articles as authors, in the provenance texts of collections, for example.
The above criteria is very large and not specific to Jewish collectors in the Nazi era. How can we further narrow the criteria? One element that distinguishes the fates of Jewish individuals from others is how and where they died, and whether or not they were interned, spoliated or became refugees.
What kind of markers can we look for in the data?
- Place of death
- Year of death
- Cause of death
- Place of internment
- Significant events like aryanization or arrest or deportation
All of the above correspond to "Properties" that are defined in Wikidata. Not all these properties have been updated for every Wikidata item. But they could be.
A Wikidata Query can easily show us all the people who are known (in Wikidata) to have died or been interned in a Nazi camp or ghetto.
How to do this?
There were so many Nazi camps in so many countries (see below) that we look for a way to take each one into account without necessarily naming each one in a query.
One way is to use Wikidata's "instance of" (P31).
We can tell the query to list people who died in a place that is defined as any of the following things:
- Nazi concentration camp (Q328468)
- concentration camp (Q152081)
- extermination camp (Q153813)
- ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe (Q2583015)
We might still miss a few of the camps (due to the crowdsourcing nature of Wikidata, not every item is coded in exactly the same way,) but this should be a good start.
There are several ways to do OR type queries in Wikidata.
We will use the very straight forward UNION. (Please do not hesitate to suggest better ways).
WHERE {
{ ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q328468.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q152081. } UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placediedwdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q2583015.}
To make the Wikidata query run faster and avoid time outs, we will first check that the place of death has been entered by someone into Wikidata.
?item wdt:P20 ?placedied.
Then, instead of specifying, as we did in the previous query, that we want to list the people who died in the specific Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau
?item wdt:P20 wd:Q7341.
we want to request people who died in any place coded as an instance of Q328468, Q152081, Q153813 or Q2583015
{ ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q328468.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q152081. } UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q2583015.}
This should include all the Nazi camps and ghettos listed at the bottom of this post
_______
SELECT DISTINCT ?item ?itemLabel ?pic ?datedied ?placediedLabel ?placedied ?child ?childLabel ?ownedby ?ownedbyLabel ?depicts ?depictsLabel ?depictedby ?depictedbyLabel ?countryLabel ?ownerof ?ownerofLabel ?spouse ?employer ?employerLabel ?spouseLabel ?mother ?motherLabel ?father ?fatherLabel ?sibling ?siblingLabel ?investby ?investbyLabel ?sigperson ?sigpersonLabel ?party ?partyLabel ?partner ?partnerLabel WHERE {
{ ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q1792450.} UNION { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q1007870. } UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q173950.} UNION { ?item wdt:P921 wd:Q328376.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q10732476.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q446966.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q22132694.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q674426.}
SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" }
?item wdt:P20 ?placedied.
{ ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q328468.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q152081. } UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q2583015.}
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P18 ?pic. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P127 ?ownedby. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P570 ?datedied. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P20 ?placedied. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P180 ?depicts. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P921 ?plunder. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P1830 ?ownerof. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P108 ?employer. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P569 ?birth. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P40 ?child. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P214 ?VIAF_ID. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P19 ?place_birth. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P244 ?Library_of_Congress_authority_ID. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P227 ?GND_ID. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P245 ?ULAN_ID. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P26 ?spouse. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P27 ?country. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P3342 ?sigperson. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P102 ?party. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P1327 ?partner. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P1840 ?investby. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P25 ?mother. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P22 ?father. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P3373 ?sibling. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P1299 ?depictedby. }
OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P39 ?position. }
FILTER (YEAR(?datedied) >= 1933 )
}
LIMIT 20000
_______
note: careful: the filter should read datedied "greater than or equal to" 1933. Sometimes the greater than symbol gets garbled on this blog
(Notice the word OPTIONAL? We are telling Wikidata to get the information if it is available but not to worry about it if it is not. Since we want to understand who these individuals were, the context of their lives and their relations with others, we have added much optional information to the query. This is not strictly speaking necessary, but possibly useful for future network analysis)
The Wikidata Sparql Query can present the results in many different ways.
As a table.
As a graph.
With photos
We can zoom in close to view certain specific elements that are hard to see when looking at lots of data.
We also get an idea of where data might be missing.
Try the query yourself. It shows only those art people who died in a Nazi camp or ghetto. What one immediately notices is how many are missing.
How to see what is present and what is absent will be the subject of our next post.
Link to Query
https://query.wikidata.org/#%0A%0ASELECT%20DISTINCT%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3Fpic%20%3Fdatedied%20%3FplacediedLabel%20%3Fplacedied%20%3Fchild%20%3FchildLabel%20%3Fownedby%20%3FownedbyLabel%20%3Fdepicts%20%3FdepictsLabel%20%3Fdepictedby%20%3FdepictedbyLabel%20%3FcountryLabel%20%3Fownerof%20%3FownerofLabel%20%3Fspouse%20%3Femployer%20%3FemployerLabel%20%3FspouseLabel%20%3Fmother%20%3FmotherLabel%20%3Ffather%20%3FfatherLabel%20%3Fsibling%20%3FsiblingLabel%20%3Finvestby%20%3FinvestbyLabel%20%3Fsigperson%20%3FsigpersonLabel%20%3Fparty%20%3FpartyLabel%20%3Fpartner%20%3FpartnerLabel%20WHERE%20%7B%0A%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ1792450.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ1007870.%20%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ173950.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP921%20wd%3AQ328376.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ10732476.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ446966.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ22132694.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20wd%3AQ674426.%7D%0A%0A%0ASERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22en%22%20%7D%0A%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3Fplacedied.%20%20%0A%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ328468.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ152081.%20%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ153813.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ153813.%7D%20UNION%20%7B%20%3Fplacedied%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ2583015.%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP18%20%3Fpic.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP127%20%3Fownedby.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP570%20%3Fdatedied.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3Fplacedied.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP180%20%3Fdepicts.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP921%20%3Fplunder.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1830%20%3Fownerof.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP108%20%3Femployer.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP569%20%3Fbirth.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP40%20%3Fchild.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP214%20%3FVIAF_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP19%20%3Fplace_birth.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP244%20%3FLibrary_of_Congress_authority_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP227%20%3FGND_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP245%20%3FULAN_ID.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP26%20%3Fspouse.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP27%20%3Fcountry.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3342%20%3Fsigperson.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP102%20%3Fparty.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1327%20%3Fpartner.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1840%20%3Finvestby.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP25%20%3Fmother.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP22%20%3Ffather.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3373%20%3Fsibling.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1299%20%3Fdepictedby.%20%7D%0AOPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP39%20%3Fposition.%20%7D%0A%23%20FILTER%20%28YEAR%28%3Fbirth%29%20%3D%201860%20%26amp%3B%26amp%3B%20YEAR%28%3Fbirth%29%20%26lt%3B%3D%201990%29%0AFILTER%20%28YEAR%28%3Fdatedied%29%20%3E%3D%201933%20%29%0A%7D%0ALIMIT%2020000
Camps and ghettos listed in the Wikidata Query
SELECT ?placedied ?placediedLabel
WHERE
{
{ ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q328468.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q152081. } UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q2583015.}
SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en". }
}
(Short link to query and result - Try it!)
Dec 27, 2019
Nazi-era Provenance Gaps and Digital Analytics: A Stunning Lack of Progress
As 2019 draws to a close, one is astonished at how little digital analysis has been published concerning artworks that changed hands during the Nazi era and still have provenance gaps today.
Powerful digital tools exist. Yet they are not used by the Nazi-era art provenance research community.
- There is no "dashboard".
- No "at-a-glance" executive summary that tells us how the different museums and institutions around the world are advancing in their provenance research projects related to the persecution of the Jews during the Nazi era.
- No "Transparency/Opacity Index" to identify institutions that do and do not publish provenance
- No executive management tool (with goals, tasks, resources, action items and persons responsible) for ensuring that provenance information is publicly available, much less accurate.
- No single database that brings together provenances that have already been published publicly.
- No world map that compares the pre-1932 location of Jewish-owned artworks and their current location today.
- No digital network analysis of the art dealers, collectors, institutions, publishers, and experts who collectively managed to shift artworks once owned by Jewish collectors in Europe to other hands.
- No database of fake provenances, (and authors of fake provenances), even though "errors" in provenance texts correlate significantly with illicit transactions that a person or persons has tried concealed
- No attempt at pattern detection in the provenance texts, though tools for regression analysis and even AI are becoming mainstream
Here we are in the digital age, but only the tiniest fraction of the power of the digital tools available has been applied to the problem of the Nazi-era art market.
Let 2020 be the watershed year in the use of advanced digital tools to track, expose and analyse Nazi-era art provenance gaps.
Perhaps the recent interest in the cultural heritage of colonial era transfers from Africa, Asia and other lands will infuse new energy and more advanced digital methodologies into provenance research.
____
image credit:
Font Awesome by Dave Gandy - https://fortawesome.github.com/Font-Awesome [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Apr 27, 2019
Art Market Networks of Adolf Wuester during the Nazi occupation of Paris
![]() |
The ALIU mentioned these people, places and organisations in its entry for Adolf Wuester in the 1946 Final Report |
1. All the contacts mentioned in the ALIU entry for Wuester, as in the above chart.
or
2. All the Red Flag entries that mention Wuester in the ALIU list (below)
3. Connections to an organisation (below, all the ALIU Red Flag entries that mention the ERR)
4. Or to a place... (below, 416 Red Flag entries mention Paris )
5. Or to other art dealer or art market networks (Wuester, Lohse, ERR, Rochlitz..)
ALIU Red Flag list entry for Adolf Wuester
Wuester, Adolf. Bernau, Bavaria Bonn Schloesel. Painter and amateur dealer, long-time pre-war resident of Paris. Chief agent in France for acquisition of works of art for Ribbentrop. Intimate contactws with von Behr and Lohse. Acted as expert for ERR on French 19th century painting. Appointed art adviser to the German Embassy on 16 July 1942, with the rank of Consul. Involved in two exchanges with the ERR. With Rochlitz, probably the leading intermediary for German official buyers in the Paris art market. Close contact of Bornheim, Dietrich, Bammann (among German dealers); Martin, Rademacher, Kuetgens and Goepel (among German museum buyers). Supplied with works of art primarily by Schoeller, Mandl, Leegenhoek, Raphael Gerard and Hotel Drouot. Close contact of Goetz, Rochlitz, Schoeller, Pfannstiel, Avogli-Trotti and the Duc de Trevise. Travelled in Switzerland, Sweden and Spain, purchasing works of art. Extradition requested by French Government.
ALIU Red Flag Names whose entries mention Wuester
Name1 | Name2 | Location | Role1 | Role2 | Role3 | Role4 | Role5 |
Wuester, Adolf | Abels Brothers, Hermann | Cologne, Komoedienstrasse 26 | Dealers | Specialists in 16th to 19th century painting and graphic arts | Active in Paris | In touch with Wuester, who was advised on purchases for Ribbentrop | |
Wuester, Adolf | Bammann, Hans | Dusseldorf, Blumenstrasse 11 | Dealer, drafted into the army in 1942 and transferred to the ERR in Paris in December 1943 at the request of Lohse and Wuester | Believed to have acted as agent for art purchases in France for museums of Dusseldorf, Cologne, Aachen and Bonn | Contact of Rochlitz and Manteau | Introduced Lohse to important German museum directors and dealers | |
Wuester, Adolf | Breker, Prof Arno | Starnberg (Buchhof uber Pocha), Bavaria | Celebrated Nazi sculptor, often in Paris during the war | Took part in arranging tour of French artists through Germany | Active as buyer | Advised Goering through Bunjes | In touch with Wuester, Adrion, Fabre, Jansen and other French dealers |
Wuester, Adolf | Goepel, Dr Erhard | Leipzig, Stieghtstrasse 76 | Official Linz agent and buyer in Holland under Posse and Voss | Bought extensively in Holland and also travelled frequently in Belgium and France | Negotiated the forced sale of the Schloss Collection in Paris | Chief contacts: Vitale Bloch (Holland), Wuester, Wandl and Holzapfel (Paris) | |
Wuester, Adolf | Knothe, Dr | Secretary of the German Embassy, Paris and reported to have worked with Wuester on art matters for von Ribbentrop and possibly Goebbels | |||||
Wuester, Adolf | Kuetgens, Dr Felix | Aachen, Heinrichsallee 18 | Member of Kunstschutz, Paris | Mentioned as also in charge of Kunstschutz in Serbia and Greece | Assisted by Wuester in art purchases in Paris | ||
Wuester, Adolf | Loewenisch, Albert | Cologne Paris, 8 ave Victor Massel | Purchasing agent for the Gauleitung Dusseldorf-Koln-Aachen-Bonn, and one of the official representatives of German museums in France | Contact of Hermssen, Wuester, Weinmueller and Lange | Partner of Toulinot and agent for Bornheim | ||
Wuester, Adolf | May, Frau Wismer | Zurich, Seefeldstrasse 90 | Colleague of Wuester in the art section of the German Embassy, Paris | Ardent Nazi and well connected in high Party circles | Considered harmless by a British art looting investigation officer | ||
Wuester, Adolf |
Mohnen, Wilhelm Jacob
| German national | Captured in Rome, 5 February 1945, after taking refuge in the Vatican | Minor Embassy official and espionage agent | Attached informally 1941-43 to the staff of Wuester in Paris | Some activity as intermediary in German art purchases and looting | |
Wuester, Adolf | Muthmann, Dr | Director of Museum of Krefeld | In contact with Wuester, Paul Cailleux, Dr Kurt Martin and Dr Hopp | ||||
Wuester, Adolf | Pfannstiel, Arthur | Paris | German painter and dealer, resident in Paris before the war | Member of staff of ERR, Bordeaux and of GIS | Friend of von Behr, for whom he is said to have acted as an informer | In touch with Wuester | Believed under indictment for espionage |
Wuester, Adolf | Rademacher, Dr Bernard | Bonn | Assistant at the Landesmuseum, Bonn | Agent for art purchases in France | Dealt with Leegenhoek, Postma and Rochlitz | In touch with Wuester and Plietzsch | |
Wuester, Adolf |
von Waldthausen
| In charge of interior decoration of the German Embassy, Paris, 1940 | Assisted by Wuester, 1942 | ||||
Wuester, Adolf | Wuester, Adolf | Bernau, Bavaria Bonn Schloesel | Painter and amateur dealer, long-time pre-war resident of Paris | Chief agent in France for acquisition of works of art for Ribbentrop | Intimate contactws with von Behr and Lohse | Acted as expert for ERR on French 19th century painting | Appointed art adviser to the German Embassy on 16 July 1942, with the rank of Consul |
Wuester, Adolf | Blot | Paris | Dealer, dealt with Wuester | ||||
Wuester, Adolf | Cailleux, Paul | Paris, 136 rue du Fbg St Honore | Dealer in contact with Rochlitz, Wuester, Frau Dietrich, Haberstock | Knew Lohse, who claims to have freed his wife from a concentration camp | Authority on 18th century French art | President of the Art Dealers Association, Paris | |
Wuester, Adolf | Cloots, F G | Paris, 14 rue de l’Abbaye | Small dealer specialising in 17th century Dutch painting | In contact with Wuester and Hofer | Husband of Alice Manteau | ||
Wuester, Adolf | Gairac, Georges | Paris, 17 rue de Seine | French art dealer who sold to Wuester and Bornheim | ||||
Wuester, Adolf | Gerard, Raphael Louis Felix | Paris, 4 ave de Messine | Dealt in confiscated pictures; main source of supply to Wuester and other German buyers | Indicted by French Government (Seine Tribunal, Judge Frapier) | |||
Wuester, Adolf | de Haucke, Cesar Monge | Paris, 14 rue du Cherche-Midi | Dealer active in Paris and New York before the war | Active in Paris during the occupation; in contact with Wuester, Haberstock and Hofer; documentary evidence in Unit files | |||
Wuester, Adolf | Kalebjian, Irene | Paris, 52 bis ave d’Iena | Schenker documents indicate sales to German buyers | One of Wuester’s chief sources | |||
Wuester, Adolf | Leegenhoek, M O | Paris, 1 rue de Rennes/230 blvd Raspail | Belgian national | Prominent restorer and subsequent dealer who sold extensively to Hofer, Lohse, Wendland, Wuester, Dietrich, Haberstock, Miedl, Goepel and the great majority of important German purchasers | Formerly associated with Lagrand, and connected with van der Veken and Renders in Belgium | Believed still to be in Paris | Possibly active in Wendland’s behalf |
Wuester, Adolf | Mandl, Victor | Paris, 9 rue du Boetie | German refugee dealer, formerly active in Berlin | Highly important figure in German art purchases in Paris | Close contact of Wendland, Dietrich, Voss, Goepel, Muehlmann, Lohse, Loebl, Perdoux, Birtschansky and Wuester | Indicted by French Government for collaborationist activity | |
Wuester, Adolf | Montag, Charles | Sevres Meudon Val Fleury, 72 rue de Paris | Swiss; naturalised French | Artist and dealer | Strongly implicated in German activity in Paris | Associate of Dequoy | Close contact of Wuester and Wendland |
Wuester, Adolf | Renand, Georges | Paris, 30 quai de Bethune | Sold to Ribbentrop through Wuester | Schenker documents indicate sales to German buyers | |||
Wuester, Adolf | Schmit, Jean | Paris, 22 rue de Charonne | Important antique dealer and decorating concern | Dealt with Bornheim, Angerer, Haberstock and other Germans brought to him by Wuester | Schenker documents indicate sales to German buyers | ||
Wuester, Adolf | Schoeller, Andre | Paris, 13 rue de Teheran | Well known expert in French 19th century painting | President of the Art Editors Syndicate and appraiser for the Hotel Drouot | Appraised paintings confiscated by the ERR | Sold extensively to Wuester, Brueschwiller and Lohse | Possibly involved in the Schloss Collection confiscation, as informer |
Wuester, Adolf | Toulinot (Toulino) | Paris, 8 ave Victor Massel | Small dealer | Partner of Loewenisch | Occasionally agent for Bornheim | In contact with Wuester and Hofer | |
Wuester, Adolf | de Trevise, Duc | Paris | Pre-war sponsor and friend of Rochlitz and Wuester | ||||
Wuester, Adolf | Trotti, Count Rene Avogli | Paris, 1/88 rue de Grenelle | Well known art dealer of Italian birth; in touch with many German art agents during the war, particularly Wuester, an old friend | Also did business with Haberstock | Indicted by French Government (Seine Tribunal, Judge Frapier) | ||
Wuester, Adolf | Wuester Adolf | See Germany | |||||
Wuester, Adolf | Raeber, Dr Willi | Basle, St Albans Anlage 68 | Prominent art dealer | Vice president of the Swiss syndicate of art dealers and its most active member | Involved in various looted art transactions | Possessed certain paintings on the Allied List | Contact of Hofer and Wuester |
Wuester, Adolf | Wendland, Dr Hans | Versoix/Geneva | German national | Art dealer, resident alternately in France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany since World War I | Partner of Reber until about 1930 | Probably the most important individual engaged in quasi-official looted art transactions in France, Germany and Switzerland in World War II | Acted as intermediary between Hofer and Fischer, and as Fischer’s chief purchasing agent |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)