Lost Art Search Requests for artworks currently in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC

The heirs of persecuted Jewish collectors Armand Dorville, Max and Martha Leibermann, Adele Paechter and the Brombergs have all filed Search Requests for Lost Art on the German Lost Art Foundation website for artworks which currently are listed in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C..

Below are five artworks with the provenances as published on Lost Art and the provenance published on the NGA website from the same day.

One notes, in particular, the ABSENCE on the NGA website of any mention of DORVILLE, LIEBERMANN or PAECHTER in the NGA version. 

This raises questions about the quality of the provenance research.

1. Saint Mary Cleophas and Her Family

NGA 1961.9.88 Saint Mary Cleophas and Her Family  Lost Art 526719 

PROVENANCE published on Lost Art (April 18, 2026): "möglich Sammlung O. Streber, München; Haskard Bank, Florenz und Charles Fairfax Murray als Agent, 1900; Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1900; Sammlung Rodolphe Kann (gest. 1905), Paris, Mai 1900 -; Kunsthandel Duveen Brothers, Paris, August 1907; Sammlung Martin Bromberg (und Erben), Hamburg, August 1907 - 1935 (nach) [...]; Sammlung Dr. Max Emden, Schweiz (?); Kunsthandel F. Kleinberger (Allan Loebl), Paris vor 20.12.1938; Kunsthandel Wildenstein & Co., Paris 1939; Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, Februar 1954 - 1956; National Gallery of Art, Washington, als Leihgabe, 1956 - 1961; National Gallery of Art, Washington, als Geschenk, 1961"

Lost Art Search request for persecuted Jewish collectors: Dr. Henry und Hertha Bromberg , published March 20, 2015

PROVENANCE published on NGA museum website (April 18, 2026)

Possibly O. Streber, Munich.[1] (Haskard Bank, Florence, and Charles Fairfax Murray, as agent, by 1900);[2] sold 1900 to (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); sold May 1900 to Rodolphe Kann [d. 1905], Paris;[3] by descent to executors of the Kann estate: Edouard Kann, Paris; Betty Schnaffer [née Kann], Frankfurt; Martin and Eleanore [née Kann] Bromberg, Hamburg; Jacob and Mathilde [née Kann] Emden, Hamburg, and Edmond and Madeline [née Kann] Bickard See, Paris.[4] (Duveen Brothers, Paris, August 1907);[5] purchased August 1907 by members of the Kann family, possibly Martin and Eleanore Bromberg, Hamburg.[6] Probably Dr. Max Emden, Switzerland, by 1939.[7] (Wildenstein & Co., New York, by 1939);[8] purchased February 1954 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[9] Denver Art Museum, Colorado, 1954-1958; at the NGA from February, 1958;[10] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] Unverified, cited by Alfred Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. 3 vols. (Munich, 1970), 2:204, no. 899.

[2] Letter of 24 January 1969, from Richard Kingzett, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, to Colin Eisler, in NGA curatorial files.

[3] Kingzett letter of 24 January 1969 cited above.

[4] Duveen stockbook in archives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; see letter of 23 February 1987 from Guy Bauman, Department of European Paintings to John Hand in NGA curatorial files.

[5] Guy Bauman letter cited above and Edward Fowles, Memories of Duveen Brothers (London, 1976), 36-43.

[6] Bauman letter, cited in note 4, notes that in both the stockbook and the salesbook, the paintings are listed only as having been sold to "Kann relations."

[7] Wildenstein & Co. brochure in NGA Kress files lists Bromberg and Dr. Emden as previous owners.

[8] Letter of 14 September 1988 from Ay-Whang Hsia, Wildenstein & Co., to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files.

[9] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1873) is dated February 10, 1954, and was for a total of fourteen paintings; payments by the Foundation continued to March 1957.

[10] William E. Suida, Paintings and Sculpture of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. (Denver, 1954), 64, no. 28; letter of 10 November 1987 to John Hand from Louise H. Kliopov, Denver Art Museum, in NGA curatorial files. Eisler 1977, 26, reversed the exhibition dates for this and the Saint Mary Salome and Her Family also by Strigel.

https://www.nga.gov/artworks/46187-saint-mary-cleophas-and-her-family

Albertina Museum- selected provenances Kallir - Kornfeld - Klipstein- Nathan 2020

 ALBERTINA Sammlungen Online ALBERTINA.AT

Tit e l

Der Schimmel

Indianapolis Museum of Art IMA art Collection Newfields: samples of provenances

 Provenance texts as of December 26, 2025

Url	Artwork Details	Provenance
https://collections.discovernewfields.org/art/artwork/37977	Alternate Titles La Promenade sous bois Artist Auguste Émile Carolus-Duran (French, 1837–1917) Creation Date 1861 Creation Location France Materials oil on canvas Object Types paintings, oil paintings Dimensions;60 x 106 in. Accession Number 1983.185 Credit Line;Gift of Judge and Mrs. Paul H. Buchanan, Jr. Copyright Public Domain Collection;European Painting and Sculpture 1800-1945 Color Palette copy	Provenance research is on-going at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. If you have questions, or if you have information to share with us, please contact info@discovernewfields.org
https://collections.discovernewfields.org/art/artwork/41967	Alternate Titles Le grand noyer (The Big Walnut Tree) Artist Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903) Creation Date 1886 Materials oil on canvas Object Types paintings, oil paintings Dimensions;25-11/16 x 32 in. (canvas);37-1/4 x 43-1/2 x 2-1/2 in. (framed, glazed) Mark Description;Signed and dated, in red, lower left: C. Pissarro. 1886 Accession Number 2002.76 Credit Line;Anonymous Copyright Public Domain Collection;European Painting and Sculpture 1800-1945 Color Palette copy	Bought from the artist by (Durand-Ruel, Paris, France) on 05 October 1886;(Duval-Fleury, Paris) on 25 March 1918.{1};Possibly in the collection of Wilhelm Hansen [1868-1936], Ordrupgaard, near Copenhagen, Denmark.{2};Private collection, Paris and Belgium, from about 1920 until 2002;Sold through (Galerie Daniel Malingue, Paris, France);Purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2002.;{1} Joachim Pissarro, Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of Paintings, volume 3, Milan: Wildenstein Institute, 2005, p. 543. This information is based on material in the Durand-Ruel archives in Paris and was also supplied to the IMA in correspondence with Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts between April and September 2002.;{2} Hansen was a prominent collector of French painting and a business partner of Emile Duval-Fleury. On their connections see Haavard Rostrup, “Wilhelm Hansen et sa collection de tableaux impressionnistes du Museé d’Ordrupgaard,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, no.1358, volume 99 (March 1982), pp.101-108, especially p. 104, and the essay by Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, "Ordrupgaard: The collection of Wilhelm Hansen and his wife Henny Hansen” in the exhibition catalogue The Age of Impressionism: European Paintings from Ordrupgaard Copenhagen, The Walters Art Museum, 2002, pp. 8-23, especially p. 13. The catalogue of Hansen’s collection by Karl Madsen, Katalog over Wilhelm Hansen’s Samling: Fransk Malerkunst, Ordrupgaard 1918, lists 8 paintings by Pissarro, but none matching this title, description, or date

Max Beckmann and the Jewish families searching for Nazi-looted art

1. German Lost Art Foundation lists 97 entries for Max Beckmann

Jewish families searching for Beckmann paintings and drawings include:

1. Aufricht, Ernst Josef
2. Buchthal, Eugen Moritz und Therese (Thea)
3. Dittmayer (Familie)
4. Eisenmann, Margarete (geb. Ledermann)
5. Flersheim, Martin und Florence
6. Glaser, Prof. Dr. Curt

1. Kantorowicz, Hermann und Elsa Ulrike (geb. Czapski)
2. Lachmann-Mosse, Hans
3. Ploschitzki, Johanna (geb. Zender)
4. Posen, Anna und Sidney
5. Speyer, Peter Ernst Hans Willy
6. 
   
7. 
   

(The Flechtheim family had filed claims but are not in the Lost Art list)

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."

Tracing itineraries of Nazi-looted art with AI

Summary of news article "Landscape with Plunder" by Judd Tully with Google NotebookLLM

http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/news/tully/tully8-30-96.asp

PROMPT: "How did the Degas go from Friedrich Gutmann to Daniel Searle. Please name every entity involved and their role."

Morton D. May, itineraries of selected artworks

(Above) Sankey of Provenance of The Little Mountain Goats

--

(Below) Interactive Sankey for several artworks

• The Little Mountain Goats
• Pitcher and Fruit Bowl
• View from the Window
• Artillerymen in the Shower
• Spring
• The Dream

data extracted by ChatGPT4o

(note that the itinerary for Artillerymen does not include the earlier provenance)

Provenances for Modern Art at the AIC (selected artists)

Provenances published by the Art Institute of Chicago for artists persecuted as "degenerate" by the Nazis

(data from November 2024)

Alsdorf in provenances of artworks in the Chicago Art Institute

James and Marilynn Alsdorf contributed many valuable artworks to the Art Institute of Chicago.

The table below shows provenance texts as published on AIC's website in August 2024. 

Provenance gaps of over a thousand years are not uncommon.

Loebl, Kleinberger and Sperling in NEPIP provenances in American Museums

Harry Sperling, the grandson of art dealer Franz Kleinberger, became head of the firm F. Kleinberger Galleries. His cousin, Allan Loebl, an Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag Name, was in charge of the Paris office during WWII.

Below are the provenances of some of the artworks that transited via Kleinberger on their way to US museums.

How solid is an art provenance text? Analysis of a Degas sculpture at the NGA

"Probably", "possibly", "apparently", "proposes" and "allegedly" in texts for Degas' Dancer Adjusting the Shoulder Strap of Her Bodice, original wax 1880s/1890s, cast 1920/1949 at the NGA

Provenances for Chagall at the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland?

 How are Swiss museums progressing on Nazi-era provenances?

A search for Marc Chagall at the Kunstmuseum Basel.

• Marc Chagall
• • Ma fiancée aux gants noirs, 1909
• Öl auf Leinwand
• 87.4 x 64.4 cm
• Kunstmuseum Basel, mit einem Beitrag von Dr. h.c. Richard Doetsch-Benziger erworben 1950
• Inv. 2239

Provenienz

spätestens 1920 – Datum unbekanntHerbert von Garvens-Garvensburg (1908–1953), Hannover
1926Alfred Flechtheim (1878–1937), Berlin (in Kommission?)
Datum unbekannt – ca. 1930Christoph Bernoulli (1897–1981), Basel
ca. 1930 – 1950Eduard Freiherr von der Heydt (1882–1964), Ascona, angekauft bei Christoph Bernoulli
1950 – heuteKunstmuseum Basel, angekauft bei Eduard von der Heydt

Holocaust victims and refugees in art provenances

Museums and auction houses rarely mention that a name in a provenance of an artwork corresponds to a person who was robbed and murdered by the Nazis or a Jewish refugee fleeing to escape the Holocaust.

This Wikidata Sparql query displays a few of the art collector whose names are absolutely to be considered red flags in provenances because they either died in the Holocaust or were forced to flee to survive.

Wikidata query run 18 May 2024: Short link: https://w.wiki/A7pr

Table: Art Collectors and Dealers who died in the Holocaust or were forced to flee

Osthaus Museum Hagen restitutes Renoir "View of the Sea from Haut Cagnes" to heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt (1882-1955)

Jakob Goldschmidt (1882-1955) was one of the most important bankers of the Weimar Republic. Persecuted by the National Socialist regime, Goldschmidt fled Germany in the spring of 1933 and emigrated to the USA via Switzerland in 1936. His German citizenship was revoked in 1940 and his assets were confiscated the following year. 

Goldschmidt's art collection was auctioned off on September 25, 1941 at the Hans W. Lange auction house in Berlin. 

The Renoir painting Blick von Haut Cagnes aufs Meer (cat. no. 45) (View of the Sea from Haut Cagnes) was purchased by Hildegard Diehn, the wife of Wehrmacht officer Wilhelm Diehn. In 1960 the Renoir was at the Nathan Gallery in Zurich, where it was acquired by Prof. Gustav Stein from Cologne, a member of the Federation of German Industries. He passed the painting on to Fritz Berg, President of the South Westphalian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Hagen in 1948 and the first BDI President from 1949. After the death of his widow, Hildegard Berg, the Berg art collection was transferred to the Osthaus Museum Hagen. 

- source: press release from Osthaus Museum Hagen https://www.osthausmuseum.de/web/de/keom/presse/renoir2023.html

Minneapolis Institute of Art provenance status for selected artworks - mostly European

The Minneapolis Institute of Art publishes provenances for some artworks but not for others.

Below is a list of selected artworks at Artsmia.

Provenances, where present, are from April 20, 2024)

Download Data in  CSV for research

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

Comparing 1961 and May 30 2019 provenances for Manet's La Sultane in the Bührle collection

How many times did the provenance change?

Word/Phrase	1961 Catalogue Count	2019 Bürhle website Count
dealer	1	0
silberberg	1	9
?	0	2
art market	0	1
by	0	7
rosenberg	0	5
might	0	1
until	0	1
no documents	0	1
was never really and completely owned by Silberberg	0	1

Edouard Manet

Young Woman in Oriental Garb

ca. 1871

Provenance at American university art museums

 Morning on the Seine, Giverny (Matinée sur la Seine)
MONET AC 1966.48
(no provenance)
 https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1966.48

 Part of the series on museum websites, provenance and transparency:

this post looks at the availability of provenance information on artworks at:

• Smith College Museum of Art (172 artworks on NEPIP)

• Mead Art Museum at Amherst College (18 artworks on NEPIP)

• Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (80 artworks on NEPIP)

• University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst

• Historic Deerfield and the Hampshire College Art Gallery

DATABASE search https://museums.fivecolleges.edu

Explore the museum's full collection through the Five College Collections Database, which combines SCMA’s holdings with the collections of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst, Historic Deerfield and the Hampshire College Art Gallery.

Provenance Evaluation: POOR

This evaluation was conducted by live tests on December 5, 2022. Please address corrections or any new information to OAD.

The museums appear to publish Credit Line but not provenance

Open Art Data is on Mastodon @openartdata@mastodon.art

Now on Mastodon!

Decentralized, more thoughtful, fewer trolls, more space to write. 

handle: @openartdata@mastodon.art

url: https://mastodon.art/@openartdata

Example of "Toots" on Mastodon

I'm wondering about the #mapping of #stories and the different versions that are told over time by different people in different places.

My own focus is the stories that are told about the #itineraries of #artworks, called #provenance.

But when I look at this #map of #iceberg #movement from Peter T Fretwell, I'm inspired about #dataviz possibilities for alternative histories of artworks (of which only one is true, the others false)

#30DayMapChallenge

 https://mastodon.art/@openartdata/109397742358396244

 

The #map function on #Digital #Benin is brilliant.

https://twitter.com/OpenLinkArtData/status/1595301214354571264

Can switch from #historical #landmarks of Benin Kingdom to the #museums in possession today.
Then #drill down for details and #datasets, with #provenance #links

Wonderful #dataviz #design.

https://digitalbenin.org/map

Could one go further and show #movement ?

#30DayMapChallenge

https://mastodon.art/@openartdata/109392975167318554 

DATASET: E. & A. Silberman Galleries and American museums

E. & A. Silberman Galleries was an art dealership owned by Abris and Elkin Silberman.  This dataset includes artworks in American museums that mention Silberman in the ownership history.

View DATASET 

See details below: