Waldmüller

1. Search Requests on LostArt

This list compiles individuals and families searching for artworks by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller in the LostArt Database. Click names to view related records.

ABC

• Anninger, Otto und Clara (1)
• Bartfeld, Max (1)
• Czeczowiczka, Dr. Arthur (3)

DEF

• Egger-Möllwald, Eveline (1)
• Eissler, Dr. Hermann und Hortense (Berta Morelli) (10)
• Freund, Dr. Richard (1)

GHI

• Glaser, Ludwig (1)
• Hellmann, Dr. Paul und Irene (2)

JKL

• Kolmer, Walter (2)
• Kraus, Konsul Gottlieb Bohumil und Mathilde (1)

MNO

• Mandl-Maldenau, Max von (2)
• Neurath, Ludwig von (2)
• Osers, Paul (Prag) (2)

PQRS

• Pick, Ignatz (4)
• Popper von Podhragy, Leopold Freiherr (2)
• Stein, Richard und Jenny (1)

TUV

• Urbanová-Lösegeld, Lota (1)

WXYZ

• Waldes, Sigmund (1)
• Zweig, Otto und Rudolf (2)

Restitution Status

• Laufende Meldung (66)
• Restituierte Objekte (16)

See also: Waldmüller with Munich Central Collecting Point IDs in WIKIDATA and, where owner is known, the Proveana, Ulan, Lexicon, Viaf, GNB and Geni IDS

Holocaust art research digital tools: Lempertz and artworks listed in the (defunct) Nazi Era Internet Portal

Art provenance research tools:

The Cologne auction house of Lempertz was included in the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag list of names in 1946. In recent times, the name has appeared in connection to several claims for restitution of artworks. Until recently American museums published artworks that had gaps in their provenance 1933-1945 in a database called NEPIP (Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal) (https://www.aam-us.org/programs/the-nazi-era-provenance-internet-portal-nepip-archive/)

This video shows artworks gathered from NEPIP and other sources that mention the word "Lempertz" in the provenance published by museums. 

Note: Some of the mentions concern the German auction house. Some do not. Some concern transactions prior to 1933, others after 1933. Inclusion on the list does not mean that the artwork was looted or sold in a forced sale, only that it contains a specific word.

Link to database used in video: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/9769949/ (Enter the word or name you want to search for in the box)

German sales catalogues published by the Getty Provenance Index and Heidelberg University tend to stop or peter out after 1945, so it is very difficult to use digital tools to analyze Lempertz and other auction sales in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s when Nazi looted artworks were laundered via auction houses with little scrutiny. 

Gathering mentions of Lempertz (and other auction houses) in museums provenances is one workaround for this lack of transparency.

Link to Getty Provenance Index

https://www.getty.edu/databases-tools-and-technologies/provenance/

Link to CSV file downloaded from old Getty GPI for search on Lempertz

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTJweR5KAilTRyV0naGWjbLpXjfCNes52bUms-901DtZv99GWDBfi4HMxJfrOVFWEiRa21MAtmXDl6E/pub?gid=1417510852&single=true&output=csv

Link to Heidelberg University German Sales catalogues

https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/en/germansales//recherche/volltext.html

(photo credit from MFA, Boston museum, The Cumaean Sibyl Donato Creti (Italian (Bolognese), 1671–1749) about 1730 ACCESSION NUMBER 1984.138 PROVENANCE November 23-25, 1983, anonymous (German private collector) sale, Lempertz, Cologne, lot 1482. 1984, sold by Piero Corsini, New York and London, to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 11, 1984) https://collections.mfa.org/objects/34617/the-cumaean-sibyl

1999: Spoils of War Newsletter No. 6 - from the archives

 Spoils of War

International Newsletter. No. 6. February 1999

Spoils of War. No. 6. February 1999 

https://kulturgutverluste.de/sites/default/files/2023-07/Spoils%20of%20War%206.pdf

2

Knoedler Commission Book 6 Index

Provenance researchers looking for Knoedler codes CA 7173 to CA 9237, below is an AI-assisted transcription of the index of names and pages numbers in Knoedler Commission Book 6. The purpose is to facilitate provenance research. The Getty Provenance Index does not include transcriptions of these records which have been published as downloadable images by the J. Paul Getty Trust. Transcriptions may contain errors.

Title Commission book 6: CA7173-CA9237, 

1965 April-1973 February 

Author/Creator M. Knoedler & Co. 

Creation Date 1965 April-1973 February

ID/Accession Number

2012.M.54 (bx.99)

Is Part Of

M. Knoedler & Co. records, approximately 1848-1971. Series III. Commission books 

Source

GRI Digital Collections

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2012m54b99

Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust

 

Knoedler Commission Book 6, transcription of Index by OAD with AI-Assistance

Commission book 6: CA7173-CA9237

https://rosettaapp.getty.edu/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1066794

(file: gri_2012_m_54_b99.pdf)

Each name is followed by the ledger page numbers where this name is mentioned in the Knoedler commission book 6

page 5 of 227

Adler + Hirsche 8-9-17-28-61-66-67-70-112

Armstrong Williams 15.

Aiken, D. S. 22

Astor, Mrs V 24, 104, 107

Ault, Mr Lee 32-78

Anneberg, Mrs Per 32

Allen, Mrs. NathanB. 42

Arnstein, Benjamin S. 42

Anstalt fur Alte und Moderne Kunst 47

(crossed out Agger, Thos. 47)

Arnet, Mr Lester 48

Armour, Mrs G.L. 57

Allison, H.V. & Co. 59-69

Adler, Siegfried 61-98

Arbus, Leon A. 61

Arthritis Foundation 71

Atkinson, Guy 72

American Master Gallery 92-121

Auchincloss, B.C. 96

Art Gallery of Ontario 103

Atelier J. de la Boune 113

Anglim, Paul Asso. 115, 135

Avery, Mrs Sally 120

Addison Gallery (Warren Addison) 121, 122, 129, 134

Alpha Gallery 124

Arnold, Jonas 130

EVENT: Provenance and Restitution with Shared Knowledge Graphs September 15

 *** The video is now up and can be watched on Youtube and on the site of the German Lost Art Foundation!!

On September 15, the German Lost Art Foundation has graciously invited me to give a talk on Provenance and Restitution in their series "Kolloquium Provenienzforschung".

https://kulturgutverluste.de/termine/kolloquium-provenienzforschung-shared-knowledge-graphs-tool-recovering

The topic is “Shared knowledge graphs as a tool in recovering looted cultural heritage and the histories of marginalized people“. 

I hope the information provided will be helpful to cultural heritage professionals, provenance researchers, claimants, Holocaust scholars, art crime experts, museum and art market people.

(Do not let the words "knowledge graph" scare you. In this talk, I’ll show how we can connect information—people, places, artworks, events—into a kind of map of relationships. Think of it as a network of stories and connections. We can use this to retrieve lost information and to explore hidden networks over long periods of time, which is very useful for Nazi-looted art as well as other kinds of stolen or disappeared cultural heritage.) 

The event will take place at the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, Außenstelle Berlin, Seydelstraße 18, 10117 Berlin. 

It is also possible to join the event via Webex. (Register by Sep 12)

Registrations to:
German Lost Art Foundation
Heinrich Natho
Humboldtstr. 12 | 39112 Magdeburg
veranstaltungen@kulturgutverluste.de

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See complete announcement below

Richard Zinser and Knoedler

 Richard Zinser in Getty Provenance Index graph data visualisation of Knoedler transactions: Millet, Cranach, Cézanne, Renoir, Bonnard, Romney

Richard Zinser in Knoedler dataviz: network of stock book entries, buyers, sellers, dates, artists, titles.

Heinemann and Mondschein (Frederick Mont) in provenances of artworks in American museums

The El Greco looted in 1944 by the Nazi Gestapo from Julius Priester passed through Rudolf J. Heinemann, (1901 – February 7, 1975) and the business he owned, Pinakos, and Frederick Mont (aka Fritz Mondschein) and the gallery he owned, Galerie Sanct Lukas, before being identified. The provenance of the looted artwork was falsified, and it took more than seventy years to find it, claim it and obtain restitution (in 2015). 

The obvious question for museums to ask themselves is: which artworks in our collections passed through these individuals or their businesses and are there any provenance gaps or discrepancies that require further verification. 

 The number of questions marks "?" (49) and "probably" (41) and "possibly" (30) and "might have" or "may have" (12) suggests the presence of guesswork and speculation.

Below are a few of the artworks known to have passed through Heinemann or Mont. 

Questionable provenance research practices at Bavarian State Painting Collections

According to a June 17, 2025 article in  Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Bavarian State Painting Collections and the Ministry of Culture have been engaging in questionable provenance research practices concerning Nazi-looted art. Members of Parliament are asking questions and demanding answers (see  Süddeutsche Zeitung: Bayerns Umgang mit NS-Raubkunst: Taskforce „Nichtstun“ by Jörg Häntzschel) 

Questionable provenance research practices by the Bavarian State Painting Collections and the Ministry of Culture include:

•

Withholding findings and failing to inform heirs The museums kept most of their provenance research findings to themselves and did not inform the descendants of the Jewish collectors who had been robbed

•

Failure to publish works in the Lostart database Many works suspected of being looted art were not published in the Lostart database, despite the obligation to do so since 1998. While 598 works are now online, 222 of these were only added in the last four months, compared to 376 in the preceding 24 years.

•

Delay and obfuscation The Ministry and museums are accused of sticking to a course of delay and obfuscation regarding restitution.

•

Claiming that "claims where the claimants were known" were not entered into Lostart The State Painting Collections' spokesperson stated that works with known claimants were not entered into Lostart previously, as the database was intended for heir searches. This practice has since been changed for "maximum transparency," but it meant that works like Ernst Barlach's busts, whose heirs were known via Alfred Flechtheim's lawyer, were not listed.

•

Providing incorrect provenance histories online The provenance histories available online are not always accurate. For instance, it's suggested that Picasso's "Fernande" might have been purchased by the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, a crucial detail for the looted art question, yet documents indicate the museum never paid for it. This is considered a "trick to conceal Alfred Flechtheim's ownership".

•

Missing provenance information for some works For other works, such as Beckmann's "Portrait of Quappi in Blue," provenance histories are entirely missing from the Pinakotheken's online collection.

•

Using unusual classification standards The State Painting Collections reportedly used classification standards that are otherwise unusual.

•

Minimizing the forced nature of exchanges The State Painting Collections interpreted disparaging remarks by former Director General Ernst Buchner about "artistically indifferent" and "entirely dispensable" deposit pictures used in an exchange with the persecuted Jewish Lion brothers as mere "strategic formulations" related to his collection strategy, rather than evidence of the unfair value of the exchange or persecution-related confiscation.

•

Denying comprehensive access to files The Ministry explicitly denied comprehensive access to all files to the lawyer representing the Flechtheim heirs, stating it was "not necessary".

•

Lack of proactive communication with heirs The State Painting Collections never informed the Flechtheim heirs' lawyer about two Barlach busts, even though they knew he represented the heirs, and he only learned about them from Lostart.

•

Lack of transparency with owners regarding looted art suspicion Owners of works, such as the Friends of the Pinakothek der Moderne, were not informed for years that their paintings (e.g., Fernand Léger's "Le Typographe") were classified as suspected looted art, despite internal checks and classifications (yellow, then orange).

•

Minister deciding alone on restitutions Unlike most other federal states in Germany, the minister in Bavaria decides alone on restitutions, which raises questions about transparency and process.

----

(summary constructed in English with NotebookLLM)

from source:

 Süddeutsche Zeitung: Bayerns Umgang mit NS-Raubkunst: Taskforce „Nichtstun“ 17. Juni 2025

Bayerns Kunstminister Blume versprach nach dem Skandal um Raubkunst an den Staatsgemäldesammlungen eine „neue Ära der Wiedergutmachung“. Doch sein Ministerium und die Museen scheinen am Kurs des Verzögerns und Verschleierns festzuhalten.

Von Jörg Häntzschel

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/bayerische-staatsgemaeldesammlungen-ns-raubkunst-blume-verzoegern-li.3270455?reduced=true

see English translation at 

LootedArt.com

See also:

Facing accusations of hiding Nazi loot, Bavaria pledges more research and greater transparency, The Art Newspaper https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/02/26/facing-accusations-hiding-nazi-loot-bavaria-pledges-more-research-greater-transparency

NS-Raubkunst-Skandal in Bayern: Verheimlicht und verschleppt https://taz.de/NS-Raubkunst-Skandal-in-Bayern/!6070973/

Jüdische Erben: »Bayern hat uns betrogen« - Claims Conference spricht von »Vertrauensbruch« https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/kultur/juedische-erben-bayern-hat-uns-betrogen-claims-conference-spricht-von-vertrauensbruch/

Heftige Kritik am Umgang Bayerns mit NS-Raubkunst https://www.zeit.de/news/2025-02/20/vertuschungsvorwuerfe-gegen-bayerns-staatsgemaeldesammlungen