May 2, 2018

Apr 24, 2018

WWII art looting networks: Leegenhoek

Brueghel in the Linz database. It passed through Leegenhoek's hands to Gallery Maria Almas-Dietrich. See: http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/linzdb/indexe.html

What does it mean to find "Leegenhoek" in a WWII era provenance?

Apr 11, 2018

French documentary: Looted paintings: the quest of a lifetime

The French television channel France2 has just aired an extremely interesting documentary on "13h15 le samedi. Tableaux spoliés: la quête d'une vie"" (1:15pm Saturday: Looted paintings: the quest of a lifetime).









[PDF]Task Force Schwabing Art Trove/ Object record excerpt for Lost Art ID ...


Jan 28, 2018 - Provenance: (…) By latest 1933: Armand Dorville, Paris. Sale: Vente aux enchères du cabinet d'un amateur parisien, Hall du Savoy, Nice, 24–27 June 1942, no. 182, pl. XLIII. M./Mme. [?] Béatrice, Hôtel Royal, Nice, acquired at the above sale. (…) (Probably acquired by Hildebrand Gurlitt in France in the ...




Mar 3, 2018

Red Flags in Art History: Zacharie Birtschansky or Birshansky

Annunciatory Angel, 16th Century  Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)
Provenance: Paris, Z. Birtschansky (dealer-1939), by whom given to the DIA in 1939.
Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal



Art Dealer Zacharie Birtschansky, NARA the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Center, Vaucher Commission Lists, July 16, 1945, FOLD3  https://www.fold3.com/image/231986121 

Who was Zacharie Birtschansky? What does finding his name in a provenance mean?

According to French documents, Zacharie Birtschansky was born on May 27, 1889 in Moscow and was an art dealer with a gallery at 88 rue Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris. Wanted for dealing in stolen art by the French, he escaped to the United States where he was thought to have stored « art treasures ».  The OSS Art Looting Investigaton Unit mentions Birtschansky numerous times, in particular in connection to Wendland and Fischer and to his partner Mandl. The name Birtschansky and Z Birtchansky appears in numerous provenances in US museums, notably the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA), to which he sold or gifted several artworks, such as Saint George and the DragonAnnunciatory Angel, and Mountain Landscape, the NGA (Bacchus and Ariadne Madame Stumpf and Her Daughter) and LACMA (KAUFFMANN, ANGELICA Half-length Portrait of the Duchess of Courland; MANDYN, JAN St. Christopher and the Christ Child