Safehaven names

Part 1: raw texts

 url: https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/military/rg-226-3g.html

Military Agency Records RG 226

Interallied and Interservice Military Agencies Records

Records of the Office of Strategic Services (RG 226) 

Records of the Research and Analysis Branch

DATASET: Lost Art Restitutions of artworks that passed through Dorotheum, Lempertz etc

A tiny sub-selection of Lost Art objects have been found and restituted.

The provenance history of these artworks -- especially during the period between the loss and the restitution -- shed light on looted art market laundering networks.

DATASET DESCRIPTION: This dataset contains restituted artworks listed on the German Lost Art Foundation that mention selected major Nazi-era auction houses in any capacity, anywhere in the record. (This means that some of the auctions occurred before the Nazi era.)

It is a deliberately small and targeted dataset for maximum linking potential to major data aggregators, notably the Getty Provenance Index, the Heidelberg Sales catalogs, Proveana, Wikidata, and (for Dutch art), RKD and well as to (where relevant) museum identifiers. 

The purpose is to facilitate the linking of detailed data concerning the artworks, their owners, the intermediaries, the auction houses and the claims process.

Every name and post 1932 auction event in this dataset should be properly referenced and linked to major databases. 

For reference use by provenance researchers, linked data experts, authority file managers, and museum people. (A couple of auctions are highlighted.) 

Auction houses in the DATASET selection of restituted items:

• Dorotheum
• Lempertz
• Lepke
• Helbing
• Galerie Fischer

This is a small selection of the total data available.

Download CSV

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. 

Nazi-looted art provenance research: names to verify in provenance texts of art museums

Names of Concern to verify in Art Provenances for European artworks created before 1945 and acquired after 1932, contains persons and organisations

(Wikidata Queries run January 25, 2025)

Merges persons of concern and organisations of concern in Nazi looted art and includes, where available Status,  GND, VIAF, Proveana and LCCN identifiers as well as alternate spellings for entity matching in provenance texts.

Download data in CSV format

Url of Public Google Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTuf7QIW4T15_5YJURSlvhZalwsdVrCNHiv5Iq4PaY-AepMw-rovx4aw9cleEI8S3NPInv4uMk9S5XD/pub?gid=103406480&single=true&output=csv

Description: 

The dataset contains 745 entries and 10 columns, with the following details:

1. Columns Overview:

   • item: Contains Wikidata URIs for the entities.
   • itemLabel: Labels or names of the entities.
   • itemDescription: Descriptions of the entities.
   • status: Provides information on the entity's status (e.g., related to Holocaust restitution cases or flagged as red flags).
   • altNames: Alternative names for the entities; this column has some missing values (449 non-null out of 745).
   • GND: German National Library identifiers; partially populated (423 non-null).
   • Proveana: Proveana-related identifiers; partially populated (132 non-null).
   • VIAF: Virtual International Authority File identifiers; partially populated (488 non-null).
   • LCCN: Library of Congress Control Numbers; partially populated (302 non-null).
   • RunDate: The date when the data was run/compiled.

Museum Collections and Names of Concern in Provenance

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".

Arthur Pfannstiel, Red Flag Name

"Definitely not a reliable or trustworthy source for cataloguing" 

- Secret Modigliani

 What does it mean to find Arthur Pfannstiel in a provenance or as the author of a reference?

Tracking Looted Art 2: Sothebys Sales of Restituted Artworks as Data

The provenances of artworks restituted to Jewish families  plundered by Nazis contain valuable information for the art historian and Holocaust scholar.

Questions:

• Which transactions occur between the seizure/sale under the Nazis and the restitution?
• Which names appear in these transactions?
• How often do they appear?

Part of the series:  Tracking Nazi-looted art dealers: Restitutions as data

This post looks a a simple method for identifying the names of these buyers and sellers for further analysis. In this example, we look at the provenances of artworks sold at Sothebys after they were restituted to their original owners or their heirs.

Art Provenance Texts as Data: Restitution Histories in Auction Catalogs

Adolph Menzel, restituted to the heirs of Walter Westfeld

When Nazi-looted artworks are restituted, families are often obliged to sell at least some of the artworks. For this they turn to auction houses. As a result, the provenances published by auction houses may provide valuable insights into the art market networks that handled the looted art until the time of restitution. 

Below is a selection of several provenances published online by Sotheby's. Some of the provenance texts indicate that artworks put up for auction had previously been restituted to the families of persecuted collectors. 

For the artworks that have been restituted, the provenances - before the restitution - offer clues to how the resale market for Nazi-looted art worked. Through which hands did the artworks pass? Do any names recur? 

Detroit Institute of Art _Archived provenance dataset 2015

Madonna and Child DIA inv 67.119

 DIA provenance listings as they appeared on October 19, 2015

Provenance researchers know that the ownership history of artworks has a tendency to change over time. Snapshots of provenance texts published by a cultural heritage institution at a specific point in time are valuable sources of information not only about the history of the artworks but also about the history of the museum.

The list below was originally published by the Detroit Institute of Art on its public website in its provenance listings ("http://www.dia.org/art/provenance-listings.aspx").

This version dates from 2015.

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DOWNLOAD CSV

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for original file see:

https://archive.ph/uISaz#selection-929.1-934.0

For recent versions of the provenance, please consult the website of the Detroit Institute of Art

ALIU Red Flag List of Names in Italian (with DeepL)

This post publishes in Italian the Art Looting Investigation Red Flag List of Names which was originally written in English in 1945-6.

(Translated from English into Italian by Deepl)

OSS ALIU Art saccheggio lista di nomi con bandiera rossa tradotta in italiano

(update in progress)

Titolo

OSS (USS Office of Strategic Services) Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 e ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index  

https://www.lootedart.com/MVI3RM469661

Descrizione

Nel 1944 il governo degli Stati Uniti creò un'unità speciale di intelligence che si occupava di arte saccheggiata, formata e amministrata dall'OSS.  Nel corso del 1945 e 1946, questa unità, chiamata Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU), produsse 16 rapporti stampati. 

Un indice dei nomi che elenca tutti gli individui, i commercianti e le agenzie che appaiono in uno di questi rapporti è disponibile qui. L'indice dei nomi può anche essere cercato su questo sito cliccando sul pulsante "Cerca" e digitando un nome nella casella di ricerca delle informazioni.   

I NOMI DELLE BANDIERE ROSSE E I DETTAGLI DELLE LORO ATTIVITÀ IN TEMPO DI GUERRA SONO ANCHE RIPORTATI IN FONDO A QUESTO DOCUMENTO, ORGANIZZATI IN ORDINE ALFABETICO PER PAESE DI ATTIVITÀ.   

I rapporti ALIU sono di tre tipi:

Biographies of people involved in the Nazi-looted art trade formerly published on Lostart whose urls no longer seem to work.

 The German Lost Art Foundation published online the biographies of "Beteiligte Privatpersonen und Körperschaftern am NS-Kulturegutraub" which translates to "Private individuals and corporate bodies involved in the NS cultural property theft". 

The  content below has since disappeared from the internet. A few entries can now be found in the internet archive or, in modified form, on Proveana. Others appear to be lost.

Benno Geiger in Provenances of Artworks Auctioned at Christies or Sothebys

 The panelists at the conference on Nazi-looted art in Italy that just took place in Venice offered many interesting insights. One of the topics that came up was the art dealer Benno Geiger, a known dealer of Nazi looted art, in a presentation by researcher Katharina Hüls-Valenti.

Geiger has been a subject of interest to us for a while. (See: "Geiger" artworks currently in American or British museums)

In this post, we look at a few of the artworks that have been auctioned at Christies or Sothebys that have some link to Benno Geiger, either in the provenance (an obvious red flag that calls for in depth verification) or in the references.  Why references? Because Nazi art looters like Benno Geiger have been known to lie about ownership histories.

Warning: given Geiger's involvement in the art market for Nazi-looted artworks and forced sales, there is no guarantee that the provenances are correct or complete. Sometimes, however, bringing the texts together in one place can make it easier to see the patterns that remain hidden when one studies each artwork individually.

Artworks linked to Benno Geiger that have been auctioned at Christies or Sothebys

DATASET: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Provenance Research Project

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts maintains an "up-to-date register of all works with incomplete provenance records for the years 1933 to 1945" in order to facilitate provenance research.

We have put the information into an easy to use file for digital analysis.

VIEW MBAM artworks with incomplete provenances 1933-1945 HERE.

DOWNLOAD CSV HERE.

Artworks whose provenance records are incomplete for the years 1933 to 1945.

Cultural property at the Oberfinanzdirektion München Bundesarchiv: archives

 

DE-1958_354da674-59a2-477f-9c9d-20da7f0840c6 

https://open-data.bundesarchiv.de/apex-ead/DE-1958_B_323.xml

In attempting to verify one of the names that appears in a provenance with an extremely high Uncertainty Index (Bottenwieser), we stumbled upon an archive file (xml) in German that contains the names of many plundered Jewish collectors (and other people as well).  

Are there names here that should be plugged into the Looted Art Detector? 

Below is a Google translation of the first few paragraphs of the German text followed by the text itself. 

(archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20210715022418/https://open-data.bundesarchiv.de/apex-ead/DE-1958_B_323.xml)

***

Fiduciary management of cultural property at the Oberfinanzdirektion München Bundesarchiv 2010 

Let's run 1000 NEPIP provenances that contain Munich through the Looted Art Detector

In the previous post we gathered one thousand provenances of artworks listed (for the most part) by American museums on the Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal that contain the word "Munich" or "München" in the provenance text.

In this post, using the Looted Art Detector developed at the Swiss Glamhack2020 and Glamhack2021, we rank artworks that contain a mention of Munich according to the criteria of "Uncertainty". 

The Munich Connection

 Research Question: How did Nazi plunder get from a cabal of looted art dealers in Munich to the art museums of the United States of America?

Which names have replaced theirs in the provenance texts?

CIR 1

 

Post-War Reports :

Activity of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in France: C.I.R. No.1 15 August 1945 (a transcribed fully searchable text of the Report)

OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES ART LOOTING INVESTIGATION UNIT APO 413 U.S. ARMY CONSOLIDATED INTERROGATION REPORT NO. 1 15

August 1945 ACTIVITY OF THE EINSTATZSTAB ROSENBERG IN FRANCE 

J. S. PLAUT Lieutenant, USNR Director 

Distribution US Chief of Counsel (War Crimes) Doc. Div. 6 J.A. Sect. (War Crimes) 3rd US Army 5 US Group CC (Germany), MFA & A 4 USFET, MFA & A 2 USFAustria (USACA), MFA & A 2 G-5 Civil Affairs War Dept. 2 Roberts Commission 2 EWD State Dept. 2 Brit. El. CC. Germany, MFA & A 4 A.C.A. (British), MFA & A 2 M.E.W. 2 M.I.5. 2 D.G.E.R. 4 Commiss. Gen. Netherlands (Ec. Recup.) 2 [p. i] 

(as published on lootedart.com)

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.

Readings in Nazi looted art: The Rape of Europa by Lynn Nicholas

Published in 1995, Lynn Nicholas' book The Rape of Europa was one of the first to investigate Hitler's massive looting of artworks. Many archives have opened since then and progress with digitization of source documents as well as and museum collections databases following the Washington Declaration have made new material available. 

It is nevertheless interesting to reread Nicholas' book for its insights, especially since the book was published nearly twenty years before the Gurlitt stash was discovered.

Below are a couple of brief extracts.

 "Voss would now channel his purchase funds, which would surpass those spent by Posse, through his own trusted agents, principal among whom was Hildebrand Gurlitt..."

- The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn Nicholas

"Despite their disgust the OSS and MFAA men were human. Craig Smyth, who later had to supervise the house arrest of Hermann Voss, found it difficult to treat so eminent a scholar as a criminal and had him report daily to someone else. Monuments officer Charles Parkhurst, sent to question the widow of Hans Posse, whom he found living on the proceeds of sales of the pathetic contents of two suitcases of family bibelots, described her as a “gentle, elderly person” and broke off his interrogation when she began to weep. In the few answers she did provide it was clear that she was very proud of her husband’s accomplishments. She even showed Parkhurst photographs of Hitler at Posse’s state funeral, but of his actual transactions she clearly knew nothing."

- The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn Nicholas

 "Plaut doubted that Bruno Lohse had really known the extent of Goering’s evildoing and noted that both he and Fräulein Limberger had become despondent when all was revealed. Rousseau and Faison too, after weeks of questioning Miss Limberger, were convinced that despite the fact that she had read the damning daily correspondence from Hofer to Goering, she bore no blame. When they had finished with her, Faison could not bring himself to leave her at the squalid internment camp to which she had been assigned and instead asked her where she would like to go. She named the Munich dealer Walter Bornheim, he of the suitcases full of francs, and a principal supplier to both Linz and Goering. Faison consented, and left her at the military post in Gräfelfing, where Bornheim lived."

- The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn Nicholas

 available on Amazon 

Cailleux in the Emile Buehrle Collection

Two of the artworks on the Buehrle Foundation Website mention Cailleux in their provenance: François-André Vincent's "Young Lady with a Turban" and Francesco Guardi's The Crucifixion.

Their provenance is reproduced below: