Tracking Looted Art with Knowledge Graphs: A Wikidata Case Study

Art looting networks operate on many levels, many of them hidden, over long periods of time. The native graph function of Wikidata enhanced by federated queries can help track them.

Tracking Looted Art with Graphs

April 9, 2022, Laurel Zuckerman

Graphs and Networks in the Humanities 2022 Technologies, Models, Analyses, and Visualizations

6th International Conference, 3. – 4. February 2022, Online

The 6th international conference on Graphs and Networks in the Humanities took place from Thursday 3. February to Friday 4. February 2022 online, co-organized by scholars from the Huygens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz, Vienna University, University of Leipzig, and the University Ca’ Foscari Venice

Paper: Tracking Looted Art with Graphs: A Case Study 

See also:

The Error is the Message: Extracting Insights from Deceptive Data for Nazi looted art

The Knowledge Graph Conference, 2023

VIDEO: 

https://youtu.be/WBMpZ3NDNRQ?si=wsFtV9wzBEghCSoB

Donation of European art to the Saint Louis Art Museum by Morton D. May and Joseph Pulitzer Jr.

 

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. 

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.

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.

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!)

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. 

The task is massive, as everyone knows. Each individual artwork can take years to research. Archives are missing, hidden, destroyed, manipulated. Access is hard to obtain. Partial. But even amid all these obstacles, there is plenty that can be done in using digital tools to gain insights from the research that already exists. 

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

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

There are several ways to view Adolf Wuester's art market networks as described in the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names.

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