Tracking looted art by examining the names in between. Example: MEISSNER

 

In this post, we look in art provenances that contain Meissner, a name that has appeared in connexion with Nazi-looted art.

Tracking Nazi-looted art dealers: Restitutions as data

What can we learn by analyzing the provenances of artworks which have been restituted to the heirs of Jewish art collectors persecuted by the Nazis?

Patterns. Repetition. Familiar faces. 

Those art dealers who just keep "popping up".

In this post we see what we can learn from the provenance published by auctions houses which have been authorized to sell previously looted art AFTER it has been restituted to the families.

Gurlitt Status: source German Lost Art Foundation website April 27 2022

What are the results of a decade of provenance research into the origins of the stash of artworks found in the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of Hitler's art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt? 

The German Lost Art Foundation publishes online a selection color coded Green, Yellow or Red from the "Provenienzrecherche Gurlitt".

At present, only four are coded RED. A whopping 615 are coded YELLOW. And 28 have received the GREEN code. As for the artworks that have not been coded, there is a note:

After the research reports on works originally suspected of Nazi looting have successfully undergone an expert review, they are approved by the board of the project sponsor. The final note summarizes the key data and research findings on the work and completes the Object Record Excpert (ORE). Then the investigated artwork is assigned to one of the categories of the agreement. Works that are classified as so-called "Degenerate Art" with a clearly unencumbered origin and the family collection* do not undergo a review and therefore do not receive a final note.

*The family holdings are works that are attributed to the Gurlitt family because they were either created after 1945, were created by family members, or can be directly attributed because of personal dedications

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Below are the  artworks in each color category:

Forgery and false provenances

False provenances are needed to insert art forgeries into the historical record.

Where there is forgery there is false provenance.

Dealers who sell forgeries are great sources of false provenances. A special kind of writing is involved in the creation of false provenances. A talent for making things that are not true seem at least plausible. 

Question: Do dealers of forgeries also sell looted art?

Some, like Knoedler, are known to have sold both at one time or another. Knoedler's prestige and power enables it to insert lies into the historical record without being challenged for a very long time. 

What about the others? How to find out?

Did the Musée de l'Orangerie make a spelling error in the name of a Holocaust victim in the provenance of this Cézanne?

Max Silberberg was a Jewish art collector in Breslau murdered by the Nazis.

Is he the same person as "Silbergerg" in the provenance text of "Fruits, serviette et boîte à lait" by Paul Cézanne?