Knoedler's ledgers: mapping missing entry dates and seller names

 

data source: Getty Provenance Index GitHub Knoedler file  13 Dec 2017

(analysis performed  on CSV file before GPI remodel)

Note:  Transactions prior to 1925 or in the Stockbooks 1-7 have been removed from this file, reducing the number of transactions from 40,250 to 13,809.  This enables us to focus on the years 1928 to 1970.

Three huge spikes in activity pop out: 1951, 1928 and 1942. But before we examine what happened in those years to create such a spike, we must deal with a problem of missing data.

Of the above transactions, 1,746 lack an entry date year. That's over 10%! More than even our highest peak!

What to do? Data scientists often "clean" datasets by eliminating rows with incomplete data. That is exactly what we will NOT do. Instead of eliminating these rows of incomplete data from our data set, we will focus on them. 

Why are these 1,746 transactions missing the entry date year? Do they have anything else in common?

What other indicators might supply us with the missing information? Proxies, in short, for the entry date year. (Names associated with specific date ranges, for example).

The Stock Book Numbers 1928-1970

The Stock Book Numbers for transactions with no Entry Date Year

We see that most of the missing years are from Stock Book 11.  

What else can we learn about the profile of the missing dates? We can compare the most frequent nationalities of all transactions 1928-1970 

to the nationalities of the transactions missing entry date years:

The largest contingent are American.  We don't understand this but will file it away, hoping that it might Make sense later.

What about the sellers? And here we are in for a bit of a surprise.

Of the 1,746 transactions that have no entry year, the vast majority - 1,481 - also have no seller.

What kind of ledgers are these that Knoedler was keeping, with neither year nor seller? 

Which ledgers are most concerned by this double absence?

With 1,469 mysterious transactions, it's Stock Book 11. 

Who are the joint owners listed in Book 11 ledger entrees which have no entry date or seller name?

(filter: Joint owner appear at least twice)

Joint Own Auth 1	Count	Knoedler Numbers in Book 11
Pinakos, Inc. (Rudolf Heinemann)	84	A6420, A5321, A4774, A6680, A5326, A5434, A1825, A1834, A1845, A1849, A1943, A1944, A1945, A1946, A2523, A2730, A2770, A2774, A2795, A2964, A3026, A3029, A3044, A3049, A3274, A3292, A3300, A3312, A3527, A5250, A5286, A5467, A5469, A5515, A5624, A5708, A5730, A4542, A4824, A4839, A4840, A4843, A4844, A4849, A4851, A4854, A4898, A4920, A4937, A4940, A4955, A5117, A5213, A5944, A5948, A5960, A5963, A5964, A5965, A5982, A6010, A6122, A6777, A6679, A6593, A6548, A6530, A6501, A6500, A6430, A6415, A6318, A6310, A6299, A6295, A6294, A7059, A6998, A6970, A6932, A7109, A5602, A5603, A6826
Hirschl & Adler Galleries	37	A3815, A4107, A3884, A3886, A3873, A3875, A3876, A3880, A3882, A3883, A3885, A3888, A5284, A5319, A5560, A5561, A5737, A5738, A5788, A5806, A5807, A5928, A6102, A6738, A6727, A6726, A6722, A6721, A6704, A6651, A7047, A7046, A7021, A7005, A7004, A6972, A7125
Spark, Victor David	25	A6144, A3188, A5745, A4448, A4923A, A4923C, A4923D, A4923H, A4923I, A4923K, A4923L, A4923M, A4923O, A4923P, A4923Q, A4923R, A4923S, A4923T, A4923W, A5016, A6013, A6018, A6138, A6145, A6147
Berggruen (Heinz), Galerie & Cie	23	A5750, A6640, A7031, A7030, A7029, A6899, A7119, A7120, A6070, A6073, A6114, A6112, A6150, A7018, A7017, A7016, A7015, A6844, A6843, A6443, A6350, A6347, A6641
Schempp, (Theodore), & Co.	13	A6934, A5188, A6684, A7066, A7002, A7001, A7000, A6942, A6939, A6935, A7116, A7130, A7131
Kennedy Galleries, Inc.	13	A4936, A7127, A7128, A7129, A5581, A6272, A6273, A6274, A7124, A7135, A5074, A5075, A6669
Fine Arts Associates	11	A5304, A5209, A6764, A6739, A7039, A6869, A7114, A7115, A7133, A7134, A6922
The A.B. Closson Jr. Co.	9	A5079, A5080, A5082, A5083, A5085, A5086, A5087, A5088, A5089
Betty McLean Gallery	9	A5288, A5290, A5291, A5292, A5294, A5299, A4684, A4685, A5055
E. and A. Milch	7	A3655, A3855, A3857, A3858, A4635, A6824, A7136
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery	7	A7078, A7080, A7082, A7081, A7083, A7077, A7079
Pearlman, Henry	6	A7086, A7087, A7089, A7090, A7091, A7088
Kleemann Galleries	6	A4617, A6432, A6391, A6390, A6332, A6331
De Hauke & Co.	5	A6763, A7100, A7101, A7103, A7110
Frank Perls Gallery	5	A6506, A6230, A6762, A6743, A6435
Balay, Roland	5	A3834, A3835, A3836, A3837, A3838
Latendorf Bookshop	5	A6249, A6250, A6251, A6252, A6253
Agnew's	5	A5435, A6098, A6099, A6228, A7056
Old Print Shop, The	4	A5714, A5716, A5718, A4672E
Weitzner, Julius H.	4	A6921, A5703, A6534, A6929
Charell, Ludwig	3	A6379, A6378, A6377
Babcock Galleries	3	A3413, A3661, A5072
Galerie les Tourettes (Otto Wertheimer)	2	A5281, A7117
John F. Fleming Rare Book Co.	2	A6388, A6387
Galerie des Arts Anciens et Modernes	2	A6135, A6313
SUTTON, HILDA	2	A3383, A3395
Louis Leon and Co.	2	A6801, A6525
Michelotti, M.	2	A5320, A4049
Ward Eggleston Galleries	2	A5991, A5992
Kernochan, Katherine Lorillard	2	A2144, A2145
Ackermann, (Arthur), and Son	2	A3600, A2556
Frederick A. Stern Inc.	2	A3068, A3206
Weil, (André), Galerie	2	A6701, A6795
STRÖLIN, ALFRED	2	A6478, A6477
Abdy, Robert Henry Edward, Sir, 5th Bart.	2	A7009, A6967
Colnaghi's	2	A1982, A3060

Where else do these Knoedler numbers appear? What do they tell us?

Can the recent publication of the new Getty Provenance Index on linked data principles help us to go further in the analysis of the information that is missing from the original Knoedler ledgers? How might we do this?

tbc...

DATASET: Names in new Getty Provenance Index

 In searching the new Getty Provenance Index, it can be useful to know the "preferred name" as recorded in ULAN, especially when performing a facetted search in the Knoedler files.

Below is a Dataset of names that may be helpful.  The data was retrieved on May 24, 2025. 

The uploaded CSV file contains 61,418 rows and 7 columns. It contains entities (mostly people or organizations) associated with the Getty Provenance Index, particularly those classified as E21_Person or E74_Group in the CIDOC CRM ontology.

Column Name	Description	Non-null Count
URI Linkedart json	The Linked.Art JSON URI for the entity	61,418
name	Preferred name of the person or organization	61,418
ulan	Getty ULAN (Union List of Artist Names) identifier	26,648
starId	Internal Getty Provenance Index identifier (STAR system)	28,500
birthYear	Birth year (if known, usually for people)	15,221
biography	Biographical note or description	10,521

Download Dataset (CSV)

(8.3 MB)

Pinakos Inc joint owner network in the Knoedler files

Pinakos, owned by Rudolph Heinemann, is a name that pops up in Nazi-looted art and false provenances.

However, the Pinakos name has a tendency to be scrubbed from provenance records, replaced either by its owner, Heinemann, or, occasionally, its frequent partner, Knoedler.

This is a pity because while Heinemann and Knoedler operated over long periods of time, including long before WWII, Pinakos is a name that appears only at very specific times. (So specific that it can be used to date undated ledger entrees.)

Pinakos Inc is rarely found alone in the Knoedler ledgers. Usually it appears as a "joint owner". An interesting pattern is Pinakos as first a "joint owner" and then, without the other partner, a seller in a separate ledger entree.

Pinakos Inc often appears in leger entrees "carried forward". Some transactions involve exchanges or returns with several different Knoedler numbers.

This post examines "joint owners" which appear in the Knoedler ledgers together with Pinakos. 

Tips for advanced search and download on the new Getty Provenance Index: VIDEO

The new Getty Provenance Index can be confusing to use. Here are some tips for advanced search and download on the new GPI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbf0QjHWQ_8

Demo:
- simple search on Pinakos,
- selection of provenance activity facet
- narrowing to a specific art market actor, (Swiss art dealer Fritz Nathan)
- download into CSV file of the five artworks that Fritz Nathan sold to Pinakos and Knoedler (who acquired jointly)

Tip: Downloading works if you don't select the optional "Export as system values". 

(In the videos I keep the mistakes so that viewer can recognize them and not panic if they make the same.)

Frederick Mont in RKD records

Frederick Mont, AKA Fritz Mondschein or Galerie Sanct Lucas, is a name that has popped up in Nazi looted art and in forgeries, and, for this reason, a name of interest for provenance researchers and art crime specialists.

Below are artworks in the RKD data that mention "Mont, Frederick" retrieved by a Sparql query at: 

https://rkd.triply.cc/rkd/RKD-Knowledge-Graph/sparql

To see the full provenance click on the RKD link.

(Art Historians: Note the number of Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag Names that appear in the full provenances)

See also:Art Dealers in Provenance: Frederick Mont at the Toledo Museum of Art and LACMA 

and Frederick Mont or Mondschein in Provenances of the Getty Provenance Index Public Collections Database 

and Fritz Mont, Frederick Mondschein and Galerie Sanct Lucas

Frederick Mont in RDK database provenances

RKD and Collections Trust Spoliation Reports: Antoine Seilern

Antoine Seilern and the Princess Gates Bequest appear in many provenances. This post gathers together information from the RKD and the UK Collections Trusts.

How to create a false provenance for a forgery, IKEA-style satirical instruction manual from ChatGPT

Here's a satirical IKEA-style instruction guide for assembling a false provenance for a forged artwork. It’s entirely fictional and intended to educate through humor—exposing how shady art dealings might look if they came with assembly instructions. (author: ChatGPT4o)

---

🖼️ FAKEVÄRDE

False Provenance Kit – Discreetly elevate your garage painting to gallery prestige!

📦 Contents:

• 1x Faded Auction Catalogue (pre-yellowed)

• 3x Invented Collectors (with vaguely European surnames)

• 1x Retired Art Historian (missing credentials)

• 2x “Private Collection, Switzerland” Labels

• 1x Forged Gallery Sticker

• 1x Typewriter (w/ misaligned keys for “authenticity”)

• 1x Bottle of Coffee (for artificial aging)

RKD Speelman

The RKD is an important source of art provenance information. The RKD cuts across data silos to bring together provenance and other information from numerous museums. Below is a search (via Sparql query) for "Speelman", an important art dealing dynasty. Click on the urls to see the complete RKD information as well as, in certain cases, links to the current collection.

(If a link doesn't work, use the RKD ID to find the artwork. Or replace "https://data.rkd.nl/images/" with "https://research.rkd.nl/en/detail/https%3A%2F%2Fdata.rkd.nl%2Fimages%2F" or with the permalink url "https://rkd.nl/images/" )

For more on Speelman, see also posts on The Legacy of Edward Speelman and Edward Speelman and the Toledo Museum of Art and Edward Speelman in America.

Galerie Moos: tracing history through public auctions

 The Moos art dealing dynasty has placed an important role. This post focuses on artworks that passed through Moos and Christie's.

Can ChatGPT find the Knoedler forgery lawsuits?

 rundate: April 21; 2025

AI tool: ChatGPT4O "DeepResearch"

author: AI ChatGPT

Known Lawsuits Against Knoedler Gallery (Forgery Scandal)

Below is a comprehensive list of all known lawsuits filed against Knoedler Gallery (d/b/a Knoedler & Co.) in connection with the sale of forged artworks. Each entry includes the plaintiff(s), filing date (or year), docket number if available, a summary of the claim (e.g. purchase of a fake painting with allegations of fraud/misrepresentation), and the outcome or settlement details:

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."

Pinakos, Heinemann and Agnew

 The following is adapted from a "conversation" with Google's AI tool, NotebookLM based on sources uploaded.

VIDEO Detecting Deception: A Computational Approach to Detecting Nazi-looted Art

Description*: 

Researching a Rigged Game: Open Source Data & the Trade of Cultural Objects, September 14 and 15, 2023. This YouTube video transcript presents a computational method for detecting potentially Nazi-looted art by analyzing the language used in artwork provenance records. The speaker, Laurel Zuckerman, explains how counting words indicating uncertainty, unreliability, and anonymity can reveal patterns suggestive of deception, drawing inspiration from her own experience with a family artwork. A software tool is demonstrated that allows users to upload provenance data and custom lists of keywords to quantify these indicators. While acknowledging limitations and the need for further research, the approach offers a scalable and objective way to prioritize artworks for closer scrutiny regarding their wartime history.

Alsdorf at the Art Institute of Chicago: Provenance Research Dataset

The Art Institute of Chicago announced yesterday that it plans to restitute to Nepal one of the objects looted from it. The looted object, Buddha Sheltered by the Serpent King Muchalinda, (Reference Number 2014.1030) was gifted to the AIC by its trustee Marilynn Alsdorf in 2014.

One may recall the Nazi looted art case filed by the heirs of Carlota Landsberg for the Picasso Woman in White that Marilynn Alsdorf acquired from art dealer Stephen Hahn in 1975 with the provenance  "Private Collection, Paris."

Or one may recall the investigations by Crain’s Chicago Business and ProPublica into "at least nine objects once owned by James and Marilynn Alsdorf that have been sent back to their countries of origin since the late 1980s".

Or one may simply be intrigued by hundreds of objects in a major US museum that still lack clear provenance despite a history of acquiring looted objects by their donors. Or, perhaps, the curious way the story is told by the museum when forced to return an obviously looted object.

RESEARCH DATASET

The following dataset includes objects linked to James or Marilynn Alsdorf with the basic object information, credit line and provenances published by the Art Institute of Chicago on its website in June 2024.

VIEW DATASET

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQrxDJ9bsWEeiFE8Jx1kBapk4GjnurmjQthd-H9qG2jmV_e07fFReJvDrAYLsbk4mrl1jUltK17znhL/pubhtml?gid=527394334&single=true

Download CSV file:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQrxDJ9bsWEeiFE8Jx1kBapk4GjnurmjQthd-H9qG2jmV_e07fFReJvDrAYLsbk4mrl1jUltK17znhL/pub?gid=527394334&single=true&output=csv

Description

This file contains provenance information related to artworks associated with the Alsdorf collection. Here are the key details:

• Rows: 317 entries
• Columns: 14
• Main Fields:
  • RetrievalDate: All entries have the same date, "19June2024".
  • Url: Direct links to the artworks on the Art Institute of Chicago’s website.
  • Artist: Names of artists where available (only 44 entries have this).
  • Title: Titles of the artworks.
  • Medium: The materials used in the artworks.
  • Credit Line: How the artwork was acquired or credited (e.g., "Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf").
  • Acc Num: Accession numbers of the artworks.
  • Provenance: Historical ownership information, partially available (161 entries have data).
  • Exhibitions: Exhibition history (120 entries have data).
  • References: Completely empty column.
  • Date Created: The estimated or known date of creation.
  • Dimensions: Physical dimensions of the artworks.
  • Publication History: Records of where the artwork has been published (136 entries have data).
  • Status: Mostly empty, but one entry states: "Loot-Deaccessioned for repatriation to Nepal Museum".

Data Visualization of Double Itineraries: Schiele artwork and persecuted Jewish owner

This dataviz shows two itineraries: that of the paintings "Offenbarung" by Egon Schiele (on the top) and, connected to it, that of Richard Lanyi, who owned the artwork before being deported and murdered by Nazis in the Holocaust.

Below is the code to run in Google Colab

https://colab.research.google.com/drive/10eMNAVfg_v9t3ndttibBNzh2U1iKYl_a?usp=sharing

This Google Colab notebook will create a data visualization based on the provenance information published by the Austrian Commission at https://web.archive.org/web/20220703142133/https://www.bmkoes.gv.at/dam/jcr:2d092829-c6e9-43ae-9073-f8d77cb1d219/dossier_lanyi.pdf

You can replace the data in this file with your own data and run it.

(The python code was created by ChatGPT4O after a conversation involving a dozen iterative prompts.)

---

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import networkx as nx

import textwrap

from google.colab import files # Import files module for download

# Function to wrap text labels for better readability

def wrap_labels(labels, width=12):

return {k: "\n".join(textwrap.wrap(v, width)) for k, v in labels.items()}

# Define the ownership timeline of the artwork

ownerships = [

("Egon Schiele", "Dr. Hermann Engel"),

("Dr. Hermann Engel", "Richard Lanyi"),

("Richard Lanyi", "Hans Zernatto"),

("Hans Zernatto", "LB (Hans Zernatto's daughter)"),

("LB (Hans Zernatto's daughter)", "Rudolf Leopold"),

("Rudolf Leopold", "Leopold Museum")

]

# Define Richard Lanyi's persecution itinerary

lanyi_itinerary = [

("Richard Lanyi", "Nazi Targeting (1938)"),

("Nazi Targeting (1938)", "Bookstore Shut Down (1938)"),

("Bookstore Shut Down (1938)", "Johannes Katzler Takes Over (1938)"),

("Johannes Katzler Takes Over (1938)", "Financial Constraints (1938-1942)"),

("Financial Constraints (1938-1942)", "Gestapo Arrest (1942)"),

("Gestapo Arrest (1942)", "Deportation to Auschwitz (1942)"),

("Deportation to Auschwitz (1942)", "Murdered in Auschwitz (1942)")

]

# Define timeline years

timeline_years = [1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960]

# Positioning nodes: Artwork ownership above, Lanyi's path below

owner_positions = {

"Egon Schiele": (1910, 2),

"Dr. Hermann Engel": (1920, 2),

"Richard Lanyi": (1930, 2),

"Hans Zernatto": (1940, 2),

"LB (Hans Zernatto's daughter)": (1950, 2),

"Rudolf Leopold": (1960, 2),

"Leopold Museum": (1970, 2)

}

# Adjusted Y positions for better readability and spacing of Lanyi's path

improved_lanyi_positions = {

"Nazi Targeting (1938)": (1938, -1),

"Bookstore Shut Down (1938)": (1938.5, -2),

"Johannes Katzler Takes Over (1938)": (1939, -3.2),

"Financial Constraints (1938-1942)": (1940, -4.5),

"Gestapo Arrest (1942)": (1942, -6),

"Deportation to Auschwitz (1942)": (1942.5, -7.5),

"Murdered in Auschwitz (1942)": (1943, -9)

}

# Merge both positions

positions = {**owner_positions, **improved_lanyi_positions}

# Wrap labels for better readability

wrapped_owner_labels = wrap_labels({node: node for node in owner_positions.keys()}, width=12)

wrapped_lanyi_labels = wrap_labels({node: node for node in improved_lanyi_positions.keys()}, width=20)

# Create graph

G = nx.DiGraph()

G.add_edges_from(ownerships, color="gray")

G.add_edges_from(lanyi_itinerary, color="darkred")

# Define edge colors

edge_colors = [G[u][v]['color'] for u, v in G.edges()]

# Create figure

plt.figure(figsize=(12, 12))

# Draw ownership path above the timeline

nx.draw_networkx_nodes(G, positions, nodelist=owner_positions.keys(), node_color="steelblue", node_size=3500, edgecolors="black")

nx.draw_networkx_edges(G, positions, edgelist=ownerships, edge_color="gray", arrows=True, width=2)

nx.draw_networkx_labels(G, positions, labels=wrapped_owner_labels, font_size=10, font_weight="bold", font_family="serif", font_color="white") # White text for better contrast

# Draw Lanyi's persecution path below the timeline with stronger visual impact

nx.draw_networkx_edges(G, positions, edgelist=lanyi_itinerary, edge_color="darkred", arrows=True, width=2.5, style="dashed")

# Display Lanyi’s persecution labels with bold emphasis

for node, (x, y) in improved_lanyi_positions.items():

plt.text(x, y, wrapped_lanyi_labels[node], fontsize=10, ha="center", fontweight="bold", color="darkred", fontfamily="serif")

# Draw the enhanced timeline with stronger markers

for year in timeline_years:

plt.scatter(year, 0, color="black", s=120) # Larger timeline markers

plt.text(year, 0.4, str(year), fontsize=11, ha="center", fontweight="bold", fontfamily="serif")

# Add dashed timeline line

plt.axhline(0, color="black", linestyle="dashed", linewidth=1.5)

# Title and annotations

plt.title("Itinerary of Egon Schiele's 'Offenbarung' (Above) and Richard Lanyi's Persecution (Below)",

fontsize=14, fontweight="bold", fontfamily="serif")

# Subtitle for context

plt.text(1925, 3, "Tracing the Fate of an Artwork and Its Jewish Collector", fontsize=12, fontweight="bold", color="black", fontfamily="serif")

# Final annotation to emphasize injustice

plt.text(1943, -10, "Richard Lanyi was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942.\nHis collection was lost to history.",

fontsize=11, fontweight="bold", color="darkred", fontfamily="serif", ha="center")

# Adjust display settings

plt.ylim(-10.5, 3.5) # Ensure spacing between sections

plt.xlim(1905, 1975)

plt.xticks([]) # Hide automatic ticks

# Save the figure to a file

filename = "Schiele_Offenbarung_Lanyi_Itinerary.png"

plt.savefig(filename, dpi=300, bbox_inches="tight")

# Show the plot

plt.show()

# Provide a download link for Google Colab users

files.download(filename)

Chagall Search Requests for Nazi-looted art

The Picasso Museum currently is showing 'L'Art Dégéneré', an exhibition about art seized from German museums by the Nazi government which sought to ban so-called "degenerate" art and persecute artists it didn't like.

As so often with "degenerate art" the focus is on paintings lost by German museums to the predations of their own government. 

However, many of the dealers and collectors of the artists in question were German Jews, and for this reason they were targeted for persecution and plunder very early in the Nazi regime, when life was still pretty normal outside of Germany. Their assets were plundered and they were eventually murdered if they did not manage to escape. Later, after Nazi Germany attacked Poland in 1939 and France, Belgium and the Netherlands in 1940, the ERR and other Nazilooting organisations seized artworks from Jews in these countries, before murdering them. 

This post looks at some of the Jewish collectors of artworks by Marc Chagall who were plundered by the Nazis. The transfer of artworks by so-called "degenerate" artist Marc Chagall to museums and collectors around the world (and notably in the USA) cannot be told without the stories of these looted Jewish collectors.