Erasing Jewish collectors' names from Nazi looted art: Alfred Weinberger

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 In 2009, Sotheby's put up for sale this Renoir entitled DEUX FEMMES DANS UN JARDIN with the following provenance.

PROVENANCE

Soutro Gallery, London
Sale: Christie's, London, June 24, 1997, lot 284
Private Collection (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 3, 2005, lot 114)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

https://web.archive.org/web/20181204232353/https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.177.html/2009/impressionist-modern-art-day-sale-n08547

No mention of Alfred Weinberger, who had owned the Renoir until a Nazi looting organization seized it in Paris on December 4, 1941.

The above is one of the most typical provenance types that conceals Nazi-looted art. 

Looted Art Detector: Custom Indicator File Art Traffickers

The list below contains the last names of antiquities trafficker who were investigated by the Manhattan DA, the FBI or other criminal investigators for their role in trafficking looted cultural heritage.

It is easy to check art provenances and references for names of known art traffickers and their networks using publicly available text analysis tools. 

Below are several lists of words that can be useful, no matter what the tool (Voyant-Tools, Rstudio, Python, ChatGPT, Lootedart Detector, etc.)

The user can analyse provenances for any names or words that seem interesting.

See also: Looted Art Detector 

and Using Custom Indicators

The list below contains the last names of antiquities trafficker who were investigated by the Manhattan DA, the FBI or other criminal investigators for their role in trafficking looted cultural heritage. To add your own words, simply copy or download the CSV and add your content and save as your own file.

word	type of flag
Hecht	HeritageFlag
Symes	HeritageFlag
C. T. Loo	HeritageFlag
Latchford	HeritageFlag
Klejman	HeritageFlag
Sperling	HeritageFlag
Wiener	HeritageFlag
Marion True	HeritageFlag
Frel	HeritageFlag
Becchina	HeritageFlag
add your own names	HeritageFlag
add your own names	HeritageFlag

If you want to have each name counted SEPARATELY? (not lumped together), you can a line for each name, like this:

Phoenix Ancient Art: selected provenances

detail of Marble female figure Cycladicca. 3200–2700 BC (on loan to the Met)

 Phoenix Ancient Art has been in the news quite a bit lately, and art crime experts are advising museums to verify their collections.

French government report 2022: The looting of works of art in France during the Occupation, organized, large-scale actions

Below is a translation into English of the following document:

 Le pillage des oeuvres d'art en France pendant l'Occupation  des actions organisées et de grande envergure  

https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Media/Thematiques/Musees/MNR/Le-pillage-des-aeuvres-d-art-en-France-pendant-l-Occupation.pdf

Holocaust victims and refugees in art provenances

Museums and auction houses rarely mention that a name in a provenance of an artwork corresponds to a person who was robbed and murdered by the Nazis or a Jewish refugee fleeing to escape the Holocaust.

This Wikidata Sparql query displays a few of the art collector whose names are absolutely to be considered red flags in provenances because they either died in the Holocaust or were forced to flee to survive.

Wikidata query run 18 May 2024: Short link: https://w.wiki/A7pr

Table: Art Collectors and Dealers who died in the Holocaust or were forced to flee