May 24, 2018
Zinckgraf (or Zinkgraf) as a Nazi Era Red Flag
May 21, 2018
Art Provenance Research Red Flags: Alexander Ball
Art Looting Investigation Unit Detailed Interrogation Report of Karl Haberstock (DIR 13) on refugee art dealer Alexander Ball "The implications of such a revelation are exceedingly grave, and BALL should be brought to account." However Alexander Ball and his brother Richard had already reached America. source: War Department Strategic Services Report DIR 13 https://dfs.ny.gov/consumer/holocaust/history_art_looting_restitution/The%20Allies/OSS%20and%20the%20ALIU/ALIU%20Reports/karl_haberstock.pdf |
Alexander Ball, also known as Alex Ball, A. Ball, A & R Ball, and Ball Galleries, was a Berlin art dealer who became a refugee and, unfortunately, worked closely with notorious Nazi art looter Karl Haberstock, helping him to locate Jewish collections for spoliation.
A Ball's activities are documented by the Art Looting Investigation Unit in several reports, including the Final Report Red Flag List of Names and the Detailed Interrogation Report (DIR) Number 13 of Karl Haberstock.
It is noteworthy how poorly Alexander Ball is documented and referenced today in art history dictionaries, encyclopedias, and art reference databases.
Art that passed through his hands landed in major museums. Any provenance or ownership history that contains his name in any of its forms deserves a closer look, with special scrutiny for items listed on the Nazi Era Internet Portal and items with gaps or other red flags in their provenance.
Below are a few mentions of Alexander Ball in historical sources as well as a few references for him.
Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names
Ball, Alexander. Paris, 9 rue Royale Aix en Provence New York (?). German Jewish refugee dealer. Intermediary for Haberstock in the sale of pictures from the unoccupied zone. Also believed to have informed on the whereabouts of prominent Jews, notably Guy de Rothschild. Believed to be in the United States.de Beauperthuys, Simone le. Paris, 6 ave de la Grande Armee. Secretary of Alexander Ball and intermediary for Ball with Haberstock, to whom she offered pictures of doubtful origin. Also represented Fischer, for whom she signed a receipt to Bornheim in Paris, July 4 1941.
May 16, 2018
Statistics on Women Art Dealers in Wikidata, Viaf, LCCN, DNB and ULAN
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Art Market Authority Files: Where are the Women? |
How are Women Art Dealers represented in authority files?
To try to answer this question, we looked at a Wikidata Query for Women Art Dealers:
RESULTS:- As of May 16, 2018, 124 female art dealers were referenced in Wikidata with information about their gender (female) and their occupation (art dealer)
- Of these 124, WIKIDATA had the VIAF ID for 59, the Library of Congress IDs for 40, the GND IDs for 36 and the spouses for 20. Only 13, or about 10%, had ULAN IDs in Wikidata.
Link to the Women Art Dealers Wikidata Query Results here.
It would be interesting to compare Lists of Women Art Dealers resulting from Queries in VIAF, LCCN, GND and ULAN to see if the problem stems from a lack of Authority information in WIKIDATA (the ID exists but has not been added to the Wikidata entity) or simply a lack of information about Women Art Dealers in crucial authorities.
Women Art Dealers with Identifiers and Spouses
List of Women Art Dealers in Wikidata May 16, 2018
UPLOAD RESULTS
JSON file of Women Art Dealers
CSV file of Women Art Dealers from Wikidata Query May 16, 2018
see stats here
JSON file of Women Art Dealers
CSV file of Women Art Dealers from Wikidata Query May 16, 2018
see stats here
Art Dealer Name | WIKIDATA item | VIAF_ID | Library_of_Congress_authority_ID | GND_ID | ULAN_ID | spouse | spouseLabel |
Helga de Alvear | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5704398 | 203283547 | no2003112064 | ||||
Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6172093 | 165824978 | |||||
Lucy Wertheim | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6698567 | ||||||
Martha Hopkins Struever | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6774430 | 73552138 | no2003106507 | ||||
Maureen Paley | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6792748 | 26330572 | n96076100 | 142187895 | 500065649 | ||
Bertha Urdang | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6966052 | ||||||
Shelley M. Shier | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7493794 | ||||||
Terry Dintenfass | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7704300 | 63943854 | nr2002021200 | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6140012 | James Morgan Read | ||
Vanessa Branson | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7914616 | ||||||
Virginia Dwan | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7934253 | 70033908 | |||||
Wendy Olsoff | http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7982741 |
May 15, 2018
Fritz Mont, Frederick Mondschein and Galerie Sanct Lucas
What does it mean to find the names Fritz Mont, Fritz Mondschein, Frederick Mondschein or Frederick Mont in the provenance of an artwork?
The Getty has a record for MONT Inc |
biography
Born in Vienna in 1894, Frederick Mont, also known as A. F. Mondschein or Frederick Mondschein or Adolf Fritz Mondschein, emigrated to the United States in the 1930s. Mont aka Mondschein owned the Galerie Sanct Lucas and counted among his clients many US museums. He had close relationships with American dealer Victor Spark (1898-1991) and the Newhouse Galleries. Mont played an important role in the transatlantic art trade. The names Mont, Mondschein, and Sanct Lucas appear in several artworks listed on NEPIP, the Nazi Era Provenance Research Portal.
(source: Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America)*****
Galerie Sanct Lucas
Newhouse Galleries
Spark, Victor David, 1898-1991
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