The following names are linked to Holocaust art and restitution cases stemming from the persecution of Jews in the Nazi era. Their presence in a provenance is a Flag that requires serious verification. (For art galleries, see "More Names of Concern".
Dec 24, 2024
AIC names extracted from Provenances (artworks by so called "degenerate" artists)
Names extracted from the provenance texts of artworks in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago who were created by artists whom the Nazis labelled "degenerate"
See DATASET with provenances HERE
Nov 10, 2024
Experiments in Automated Entity Extraction with Pinpoint: Toledo Museum of Art Provenance PDF
Pinpoint is a tool for investigative journalists. It performs automatic entity extraction from PDF files. Can it be useful for processing provenance texts?
In this post, we examine the results for the Provenance Research PDF file published by the Toledo Museum of Art and archived at:
Nov 7, 2024
The Grosz was acquired from...
The German Expressionist artist George Grosz (1893–1959) was persecuted by the Nazis for his art, while Grosz's art dealer, Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937), was persecuted by the Nazis for being Jewish*. Both fled Nazi Germany in 1933, Grosz to America and Flechtheim to England. Both were plundered.
Some pretty elaborate speculation has been advanced concerning the itineraries of artworks via Grosz and Flechtheim. This post explores what the museums who have Grosz in their collections have to say about where they got it from.
Art Institutions Table
National Gallery of Art |
Cleveland Museum of Art |
Rosenwald Collection |
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
"Degenerate Art" Collection |
Dallas Museum of Art |
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum |
Museum of Modern Art |
Bavarian State Painting Collections |
King Baudouin Foundation |
Where is this art today?
We're going to focus on the art created in early years, until 1932.
The itineraries of many of these artworks are contested. We will focus on the one piece of information that museums must know: who they acquired the Grosz artworks from and when.
Oct 28, 2024
Arthur Pfannstiel, Red Flag Name
"Definitely not a reliable or trustworthy source for cataloguing"
What does it mean to find Arthur Pfannstiel in a provenance or as the author of a reference?
Sep 11, 2024
Probst and expanded network: explorations in provenance
Starting from Probst and expanding out to see the other names that appeared together with Probst in provenances
Jul 10, 2024
DATASET: Art Provenances AFTER Restitution of Looted Art
Claims for Nazi-looted art or duress sales sometimes result in restitution or settlement agreements which cause the restituted artwork to be sold at auction.
Below are artworks whose provenance, as published by Christie's auction house, mentions a restitution or settlement agreement with the heir of a victim of Nazi persecution.
These provenance texts provide valuable information to art historians and Holocaust researchers, offering insights into the art market networks that dealt in Holocaust-linked artworks between the time they left the possession of the persecuted Jewish collectors and the time they were restituted.
(original source of information: Christie's auction website)
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Dataset: CSV Download
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URL:
Jun 25, 2024
Graupe in provenance texts of American museums
The Paul Graupe auction house was a key player in sales of Jewish art collections during the Nazi-era.
In this post, we look at a selection of 88 artworks in American museums that mention "Graupe" in the provenance text.
Some texts refer to sales prior to 1933. Some texts specify that an artwork was NOT sold at Graupe's. And some texts clearly refer to sales at Graupe's during the Nazi era. Some texts are factual while others contain speculative language.
May 30, 2024
Erasing Jewish collectors' names from Nazi looted art: Alfred Weinberger
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
In 2009, Sotheby's put up for sale this Renoir entitled DEUX FEMMES DANS UN JARDIN with the following provenance.
PROVENANCE
Soutro Gallery, London
Sale: Christie's, London, June 24, 1997, lot 284
Private Collection (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 3, 2005, lot 114)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
No mention of Alfred Weinberger, who had owned the Renoir until a Nazi looting organization seized it in Paris on December 4, 1941.
The above is one of the most typical provenance types that conceals Nazi-looted art.
May 29, 2024
Looted Art Detector: Custom Indicator File Art Traffickers
The list below contains the last names of antiquities trafficker who were investigated by the Manhattan DA, the FBI or other criminal investigators for their role in trafficking looted cultural heritage.
It is easy to check art provenances and references for names of known art traffickers and their networks using publicly available text analysis tools.
Below are several lists of words that can be useful, no matter what the tool (Voyant-Tools, Rstudio, Python, ChatGPT, Lootedart Detector, etc.)
See also: Looted Art Detector
and Using Custom Indicators
The list below contains the last names of antiquities trafficker who were investigated by the Manhattan DA, the FBI or other criminal investigators for their role in trafficking looted cultural heritage. To add your own words, simply copy or download the CSV and add your content and save as your own file.
word | type of flag |
Hecht | HeritageFlag |
Symes | HeritageFlag |
C. T. Loo | HeritageFlag |
Latchford | HeritageFlag |
Klejman | HeritageFlag |
Sperling | HeritageFlag |
Wiener | HeritageFlag |
Marion True | HeritageFlag |
Frel | HeritageFlag |
Becchina | HeritageFlag |
add your own names | HeritageFlag |
add your own names | HeritageFlag |
May 26, 2024
Phoenix Ancient Art: selected provenances
May 25, 2024
French government report 2022: The looting of works of art in France during the Occupation, organized, large-scale actions
Below is a translation into English of the following document:
Le pillage des oeuvres d'art en France pendant l'Occupation des actions organisées et de grande envergure
https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Media/Thematiques/Musees/MNR/Le-pillage-des-aeuvres-d-art-en-France-pendant-l-Occupation.pdf
Apr 26, 2024
Koutoulakis in provenances
Where do artworks that passed through notorious looted antiquities trafficker Nicolas Koutoulakis pop up?
Dataset with Koutoulakis-linked items in the:
- J. Paul Getty Museum
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Museum of Fine Art Boston
- and others
DOWNLOAD
Oct 4, 2023
Comparing 1961 and May 30 2019 provenances for Manet's La Sultane in the Bührle collection
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
Sep 12, 2023
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: no provenances for Picasso?
Sep 2, 2023
DATASET: Latchford Wiener Hecht Sperling Klejman in provenances at Metropolitan Museum of Art
FLASH: 26 Doris Wiener provenances added 17SEP2023!
September 2, 2023
DATASET Metropolitan Museum of Art artworks with links to Douglas Latchford, Doris Wiener, Robert Hecht, Harry Sperling, John Klejman, Klaus G. Perls, Joseph Brummer
Dataset name: Selection Latchford plus Metmuseum 2022
Description: This enhanced Provenance dataset has been constructed from information available on the public internet site of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes the provenance and credit line information for artworks which mention Douglas Latchford, Doris Wiener, Robert Hecht, Harry Sperling, John Klejman, Klaus G. Perls, Joseph Brummer and others. It is intended to facilitate research into antiquities provenance for scholars, art historians and investigators.
Format: Google Sheet
Download: CSV
Contents:
- Selection
- Source
- RetrievalDate
- YEAR Acquired
- Source Url
- Title Date
- Artist
- Credit Line
- Acc Num
- Provenance (as published by the Metropolitan Museum on its website on March 29, 2022)
- Description
- Artist_Region
- Artwork__tombstone Value
Publisher of Dataset: OAD
Date of Publication: September 2, 2023
Jul 25, 2023
British Museum Acquisitions from Spink and Sons: analysis with ChatGPT prompts
QUESTION TO CHATGPT (code interpreter)
Spink and Sons is an art dealer involved in selling many looted artifacts. Please examine this file and tell me three ways it could be analysed to rank artworks most likely to have been looted
Jun 20, 2023
Picasso in Museums around the world
Collection | Before 1945 | Image? | Provenance? | Nazi-era Gaps? |
---|---|---|---|---|
MoMA | 659 | yes | sometimes | yes |
NGA | 258 | yes | yes | yes |
Pompidou | 59 | yes | no | yes |
Musée Picasso | 4000+ all dates | yes | no | unknown |
Albertina | 40 | yes | no | yes |
Hermitage | 36 | yes | no | yes |
Fondation Beyeler | 22 | yes | yes | yes |
Museums in Denmark | 133 | yes | yes | yes |
UK Collections Trust | 16 | no | yes | yes |
Pinakothek (Munich) | 14 | no | no | yes |
Kunstmuseum Basel | 66 | yes | NO | yes |
Kunstmuseum Bern | 9 -on display or Gurlitt | yes | yes - PDF | yes |
Metropolitan Museum | 56 | yes | yes | yes |
MFA | 29 | yes | yes | yes |
DIA | 21 | NO | yes | yes |
Harvard Art Museums | 20 | yes | yes | yes-11 |
Yale Art | 35 | yes | yes | yes |
Cleveland | 19 | yes | yes | yes |
Princeton Museum | 6 | yes | NO | yes |
Emil Bührle Collection | 5 | yes | yes | yes |
Musée d'Orsay | 1 | yes | yes | yes |
Rose Art Museum | 4 | yes | no | yes |
Museum of Modern Art - MoMa (USA)
MFA Boston (USA)
Museums in Denmark
Jun 3, 2023
Advisory Commission on the Return of Cultural Property Seized as a Result of Nazi persecution: recommendations in searchable text
This is a searchable text-only copy of recommendations originally published by the Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property (Beratende Kommission NS-Raubgut)
- Robert Graetz
- Kurt and Else Grawi
- Heinrich Rieger
- Max Fischer
- Dr. and Mrs. Max Stern
- Max J. Emden
- Max und Margarethe Rüdenberg
- Felix Hildesheimer
- Alfred Salomon
- Alfred Flechtheim
- Ludwig Traube
- Eduard L. Behrens
- Clara Levy geb. Isaak
- J.S. Goldschmidt, I. Rosenbaum und Z.M. Hackenbroch
- Paul Westheim
- Alexander Lewin
- Julius und Clara Freund
May 27, 2023
Using ChatGPT to detect language indicating uncertainty in provenance texts
In this conversation with the AI ChatBot, I asked it to look at the provenance text for Picasso's Woman with Pears, at the MoMa.
The provenance text on MoMa's website is:
I asked ChatGPT to break the provenance text into sentences and to identify any indications of uncertainty or speculation in each. Then I requested that it present the results in a table.
Sentence | Indications of Uncertainty or Speculation |
---|---|
[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris and/or Ambroise Vollard, Paris and/or Galerie Thannhauser, Munich] | Indication of uncertainty in the gallery names |
By September 7, 1919 (1912 or 1913?) - at least October 1932, Alfred Flechtheim and/or Galerie Flechtheim, Düsseldorf, Berlin, and London. | Uncertainty about the specific year (1912 or 1913) and presence of "and/or" |
By February 1934(?) - March 1937, The Mayor Gallery and/or Douglas Cooper, London. | Uncertainty about the specific date (February 1934) and presence of "and/or" |
March 1937, Pierre Matisse Gallery (consignment no. 882, stock no. 594), New York, purchased from "Cooper." | None |
1996, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as bequest from Florene May Schoenborn. | None |