May 12, 2020

Missing art people and the Holocaust

How information about Jewish art  collectors who died in the Holocaust goes missing in the semantic web of linked data.

1. How many art collectors, dealers, curators, museum directors, art historians or gallery owners died in Nazi concentration camps, ghettos or jails?

As of this writing, Wikidata (which includes every entry in Wikipedia and more) can give us the names of exactly 21 persons.


Clearly, many names are missing. Why?

Because to be picked up in the Wikidata query used (https://w.wiki/Qb7) certain information (profession, death place) must have been registered by someone in Wikidata. If any of this information is missing, the query will not find the name.


2. What happens if we try to annotate the Wikidata list of 21 names using DBpedia Spotlight? 

The individuals exist in Wikidata. Will DBpedia, an important linked data hub, using by many tools for entity matching and linking, be able to identify these individuals and link to them via Spotlight?

To find out, we took the list of the 21 names produced by Wikidata, put them in sentence form and ran them through the DBpedia SPOTLIGHT annotation API.


This is the list of art collectors, dealers, historians, curators, etc who died in Nazi camps, ghettos or jails: Adam Abel died in Flossenbürg concentration camp, Anton Mayer died in Neuengamme concentration camp, August Liebmann Mayer died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, François Lang died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Friedrich Gutmann died in Theresienstadt concentration camp, Fritz Grünbaum died in Dachau concentration camp, Gertrud Kantorowicz died in Theresienstadt concentration camp, Heinrich Feurstein died in Dachau concentration camp, Henri Hinrichsen died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Karl Freund died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Leo Grünstein died in Theresienstadt concentration camp, Lisa Hamburg died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Lucien Graux died in Dachau concentration camp, Ludwig Pollak died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Max Frankenburger died in Theresienstadt concentration camp, Max Silberberg died in Theresienstadt concentration camp, Q28192906 died in Theresienstadt concentration camp, Walter Cohen died in Dachau concentration camp, Walter Westfeld died in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Wilhelm Kurtz died in Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp, Wilhelm Mautner died in Auschwitz-Birkenau

3. As you can see from the results below, very few of these Holocaust victims were correctly identified. 

Of the 21, only four - Friedrich Gutmann, Fritz Grünbaum, Wilhelm Mautner and Ludwig Pollak - were correctly annotated in DBpedia Spotlight.



  • Friedrich Bernhard Eugen "Fritz" Gutmann (15 November 1886 – 13 April 1944) was a Dutch banker and art collector.The collection and the fate of Fritz Gutmann is described by his grandson, Simon Goodman, in "The Orpheus Clock" (Pub. Simon & Schuster, Aug. 2015). (en)
  • Fritz Grünbaum (7 April 1880 in Brno, Moravia as Franz Friedrich Grünbaum – 14 January 1941 at the Dachau concentration camp, Germany) was an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, operetta and pop song writer, director, actor and master of ceremonies. (en)
  • Wilhelm Mautner (1889-1944) was born in Vienna. He was an Austrian-German economist and attorney-in-fact of the Rotterdamse Bank who spent a part of his life in the Netherlands. Mautner was born Jewish. He was also an art collector. (en)
  • Ludwig Pollak (14 September 1868, Prague – 1943, Auschwitz concentration camp) was an Austro-Czech classical archaeologist, antiquities dealer, and director of the Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica in Rome. He is perhaps best known for discovering in 1906 the missing right arm of Laocoön in the famous ancient Roman sculpture Laocoön and His Sons.

No matches or mistaken matches were found for 17 of the 21. Mistaken identities included: 


  • Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz (May 3, 1895 – September 9, 1963) was a German-American historian of medieval political and intellectual history and art, known for his 1927 book Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite on Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and The King's Two Bodies (1957) on medieval and early modern ideologies of monarchy and the state. (en)
  • Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. (January 16, 1890 – May 3, 1969) was a cinematographer and film director best known for photographing Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931), and television's I Love Lucy (1951-1957). (en)
  • Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by American actor John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2002. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White House Chief of Staff. He is President Josiah Bartlet's best friend and a father figure to the Senior Staff, particularly White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn. (en)
  • Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child and most intelligent of the Simpson family.
  • Charles Graux (23 November 1852 – 8 January 1882) was a French classicist and palaeographer. Apart from scores of articles and reviews, he published important critical editions of works by Xenophon and Plutarch and pioneering, descriptive catalogs of the medieval copies of ancient Greek texts preserved in the libraries of Spain and Denmark. His most enduring contributions were to the history of ancient stichometry.
  • This is a list of the major characters in Robotech, the American adaptation of three Japanese animated series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada, as a single TV series. The series is divided into parts called "generations" which are subtitled The Macross Saga, The Second Generation, and The New Generation
  • Westfeld is a town in the district of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony, Germany.
  • Kurtz is a central fictional character in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. A trader of ivory in Africa and commander of a trading post, he monopolises his position as a demigod among native Africans.

These errors occur even though the individuals exist in Wikidata and are coded with enough information (name, profession, place of death) to be picked up in the Wikidata Query.

4. Why is it so hard to match via DBpedia the names of Jewish Art Collectors who died in the Holocaust?

One reason (but not the only reason) is that, even though DBpedia includes Wikidata Qcodes, it still filters its linked data information through Wikipedia. 

So even if something exists in Wikidata and is properly referenced, it does not exist in DBpedia. 
That is a partial explanation. There are also individuals who exist in Wikipedia who are not picked up by DBpedia Spotlight in this exercise. 

Below is the JSON code produced by the DBpedia Spotlight annotation API.
(The @URI is the DPpedia resource.
The @surfaceForm is the word as it actually appeared in the text.)

In some cases, the problem begins with the identification of the surface form, like "Westfeld" instead of "Walter Westfeld" or "Max" instead of "Max Silberberg".

(Particularly amazing is the matching of Max to a List of Robotech characters. Thus, using advanced natural language processing, entity matching and reconciliation, the closest we get to linked data for Holocaust victim and art collector Max Silberberg is "major characters in Robotech, the American adaptation of three Japanese animated series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada"?)

This misidentification is all the more noteworthy because both Walter Westfeld and Max Silberberg have Wikipedia pages.

However Walter Westfeld's is only in German while Max Silberberg's are in German and Russian.

The lack of an English-language Wikipedia page is another reason for the individual's invisibility in any API that uses only English.

(There are more reasons, to be explored later)


5. Below: Result, in JSON, of the DBpedia Spotlight annotation of the names of the 21 art collectors and other lost art people who died in the Holocaust.

"@confidence": "0.5",
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  "@sparql": "",
  "@policy": "whitelist",
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}

TRY IT

curl -X GET "https://api.dbpedia-spotlight.org/en/annotate?text=%22This%20is%20the%20list%20of%20art%20collectors%2C%20dealers%2C%20historians%2C%20curators%2C%20etc%20who%20died%20in%20Nazi%20camps%2C%20ghettos%20or%20jails%3A%20Adam%20Abel%20died%20in%20Flossenb%C3%BCrg%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Anton%20Mayer%20died%20in%20Neuengamme%20concentration%20camp%2C%20August%20Liebmann%20Mayer%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%20Fran%C3%A7ois%20Lang%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%20Friedrich%20Gutmann%20died%20in%20Theresienstadt%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Fritz%20Gr%C3%BCnbaum%20died%20in%20Dachau%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Gertrud%20Kantorowicz%20died%20in%20Theresienstadt%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Heinrich%20Feurstein%20died%20in%20Dachau%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Henri%20Hinrichsen%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%20Karl%20Freund%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%20Leo%20Gr%C3%BCnstein%20died%20in%20Theresienstadt%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Lisa%20Hamburg%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%20Lucien%20Graux%20died%20in%20Dachau%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Ludwig%20Pollak%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%20Max%20Frankenburger%20died%20in%20Theresienstadt%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Max%20Silberberg%20died%20in%20Theresienstadt%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Q28192906%20died%20in%20Theresienstadt%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Walter%20Cohen%20died%20in%20Dachau%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Walter%20Westfeld%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%20Wilhelm%20Kurtz%20died%20in%20Auschwitz%20II-Birkenau%20concentration%20camp%2C%20Wilhelm%20Mautner%20died%20in%20Auschwitz-Birkenau%2C%22" -H "accept: application/json"


6. Thoughts

People are relying increasingly on automated systems to retrieve, read, understand, summarise, link, analyse and repackage real world texts.  However the underlying reference systems are terribly weak when it comes to a topic like Jewish art collectors who died in the Holocaust. The resulting information loss and information distortion is likely to propagate throughout systems undetected, harming our knowledge of the world.
Automated quality control systems are unfit for dealing with this issue.


7. Comments, questions, and criticisms of this draft are most welcome.


 WIKIDATA QUERY

#Art Collectors and other art people who died in Nazi concentration camps or jails

SELECT DISTINCT ?item ?itemLabel ?placediedLabel ?placedied  WHERE {
{ ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q1792450.} UNION { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q1007870. } UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q173950.} UNION { ?item wdt:P921 wd:Q328376.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q10732476.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q446966.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q22132694.} UNION { ?item wdt:P106 wd:Q674426.}


SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" }
?item wdt:P20 ?placedied.
{ ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q328468.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q152081. } UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q153813.} UNION { ?placedied wdt:P31 wd:Q2583015.}}


____


PHOTO: http://www.silesiancollections.eu/Works-of-art/Painting/Renoir-Auguste-Reading

May 9, 2020

The Holocaust and the Art Market: Alfred Daber

What does it mean to find the name of Alfred Daber or of Galerie Daber in a provenance?
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.265


DABER is a name that can be found in the provenances of numerous artworks. However Alfred Daber, an ALIU Red Flag Name, was known to have trafficked in looted art during the Nazi era. 

In this post, we gather information publicly available online in digital form about Alfred Daber. 1) Where - in which museums - does the name Daber appear in provenances? 2) What other names appear together with Daber? 3) What mentions of Daber can be found in databases such as France's Rose Valland MNR and the Getty Provenance Index and its Knoedler file? 4) What Fold3 archival documents mention Daber? and 5) What books or catalogs did Daber author or edit?

In short, what kind of picture emerges of the fates of artworks that, at one time or another, passed through Alfred Daber's hands?

Obviously, the presence of Daber's name in a provenance does not mean that the artwork was ill-gotten. However it is a Red Flag that should not be ignored. Further research is clearly required to account for 1933-1945 provenance gaps and to verify, down to the original sources, the narratives that are provided.


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https://www.fold3.com/image/270257378

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1) Museums holding artworks that mention the name Daber in the provenance (not exhaustive):


  • National Gallery of Art in Washington DC (four artworks source: Spoliation Reports))
  • Bristol Museums & Art Gallery (five artworks source: Spoliation Reports))
  • Glasgow Museums (source: Spoliation Reports)
  • National Galleries of Scotland (source: Spoliation Reports)
  • National Gallery in London (five artworks source: Spoliation Reports)
  • Cleveland Museum of Art (source: CMA)
  • Milwaukee Art Museum (source: Knoedler)
  • Norton Simon Museum (source: Knoedler)
  • Art Institute of Chicago (source: AIC)
  • Yale University Art Gallery (source: Yale website)
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art (source:metmuseum.org)

https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/25543


2) Associated Names

Names that appear in provenances together with Daber (not exhaustive)


  • César de Haucke*
  • Raphael Gérard*
  • George Petit*
  • Jacques Dubourg*
  • E.V. Thaw
  • Stephen Hahn
  • Fritz Nathan*
  • Sam Salz
  • Arthur Tooth and Sons
  • Knoedler*
  • Michel Fert
  • Ludwig Gutbier
  • G. Tanner*
  • Georges Renand*
  • Daber Gallery
  • Blondeau Gallery

* Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag Name

3) Daber in France MNR

Looted paintings in France's MNR that mention Daber


"Le tableau est acheté 11 250 RM chez Daber, Paris, en 1941 par M. Gutbier"

"Acheté 20 000 RM chez Daber, Paris, en 1941 par Ludwig Gutbier"

"Émile Staub, à Männedorf, en Suisse (où il est encore en 1931) ; on le voit ensuite chez G. Bernheim, Paris (1932) ; chez Carlo Frua de Angeli, à Milan ; chez G. Tanner, à Zurich ; il est exposé en 1937 dans la galerie Alfred Daber, Paris ; enfin il est acheté peu avant la guerre par Georges Renand (cat. Exposition d'Amsterdam en 1938). Le tableau est acheté à Georges Renand à Paris 50 000 RM par M. Wüster (1) pour Joachim von Ribbentrop en 1941"



The Getty Selected Dealer Archives & Locations lists Daber with Blondeau Gallery.

The Getty Provenance Index lists 32 artworks with Daber as the seller, the earliest transaction dates to 1954.



BONINGTON, RICHARD PARKES
BONNARD, PIERRE
BOUDIN, EUGÈNE LOUIS
BRIANCHON, MAURICE
CARRIÈRE, EUGÈNE
COROT, JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE
COURBET, GUSTAVE
DAUMIER, HONORÉ VICTORIN
DELACROIX, EUGÈNE
FANTIN-LATOUR, HENRI
GÉRICAULT, JEAN LOUIS ANDRÉ THÉODORE
GONZALÈS, EVA
GUIGOU, PAUL CAMILLE
MONET, CLAUDE
RENOIR, PIERRE AUGUSTE


Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 69, Stock No. A7216
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 187, Stock No. A6507
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 66, Stock No. A7173
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 200, Stock No. A6709
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 219, Stock No. A9243
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 137, Stock No. A5825
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 154, Stock No. A6065
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 154, Stock No. A6066
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 183, Stock No. A6438
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 183, Stock No. A6439
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 183, Stock No. A6440
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 183, Stock No. A6441
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 206, Stock No. A9095
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 107, Stock No. A5375
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 154,
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 143, Stock No. A8314
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 171, Stock No. A8691
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 84, Stock No. A7405
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 180, Stock No. A8791
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 82, Stock No. A7384
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 148, Stock No. A8408
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 175, Stock No. A6334
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 73, Stock No. A7269
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 73, Stock No. A7270
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 73, Stock No. A7271
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 137, Stock No. A5833
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 154, Stock No. A6064
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 40, Stock No. A6064
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 174, Stock No. A8723
Knoedler Stock Book 10, Page 186, Stock No. A6492
Knoedler Stock Book 11, Page 173, Stock No. A8720
Stock No. A6063
Knoedler Stock Book 8, Page 186, Stock No. A2036

4) FOLD 3 and the archival mentions of Alfred Daber


May 2, 2011 - DABERAlfred 109) Boulevard Haussmann, Paris. Art dealer, specialises in 19th and 20th Century pictures. Had a laissez-passer from the ...
Mar 26, 2012 - DABERAlfred 109 Boulevard Haussmann, Paris. Art dealer, specialises in 19th and 20th Century pictures. Had a laissez-passer from the ...




4, I an infomed that Alfred DABER, 109, Boulevard Haussnann, Paris, was trading in looted piotures with the EINSATZSTAB ROSENBERG. He surxroned ...
Some were willing collaborators"like' Alfred Daber, Martin Fabiani, Cesar de Haucke, 0. Petrides, and Count Avogli Trotti. Others like Loebl of the Kleinberger  ...
https://www.fold3.com/document/270104113/
Feb 12, 2013 - Some were willing collaborators like Alfred Daber, Martin'Fabiani,.iCdsar de Haucke, 0. Petrides, and Count Avogli Trottii Others likV'Loebel of ...
Louis CQUPAQHIE de la CHINE et des INDES' ' HENOU ot COLLE - S DABERAlfred ,T., SCKMITT, Joan . 1 DESLOUIS .J. SCHOELLER, Andre ' " . i'.V .is.



I an infomed that Alfred DABER, 109, Boulevard Haussnann, Paris, 'was trading in looted pictures with the EMSATZSTAB ROSENBERG. He summoned TANNER ...
https://www.fold3.com/document/270101397/
Alfred DABER art dealer Bid. Houssaann (in connection with 2VMER of Zurich). Cesar do HAUCKE art dealer, ? PETPJDES art dealer, Count Avogli TROTTI art ...
... RENOU et COLLE DABERAlfred SCHMITT, Jean DESLOUIS - SCHOELLER, Andre DEQUOY, Roger SIMON Galerie DESMARETS et GODARD SOO & CIE.
2f, I am informed that Alfred DABER, .109, Boulevard Haussmann, Pari3, was trading in looted pictures with the EDTSATZSTAB ROSENBERG.. He summoned  ...



... of TODTMDOS-AU (Badon) TOm Paris Martin FABIANI art dealer, Avenue Matignon, Roger DEQUOX . art dealer Rue la Boetie, Alfred DABER . -, art dealer  ...
https://www.fold3.com/image/270037474
I an infomed that Alfred DABER, 109, Boulevard Haussnann, Paris, was trading in looted piotures with the EINSATZSTAB ROSENBERG. He suvxioned TWINER  ...
... Charles CHALEY6SIN NICOLIER, Jean COMPAGNIE de la CHINE v OSTINS, J.R. et des INDES PERDOUX, Yves DaBERAlfred PERRET-VIBERT DEQ00Y.
(Baden) Fron Paris Martin FABIANI art dealer, Avenue Matignon, Roger DEQUOI art dealer Rue la BoStie, Alfred DABER art dealer Bid, Houssannn (in ...
... COMPAGNIE de la CHINE OSTINS, J,R. et des INDES PERDOUX, Yves DABERAlfredPERREI-VIBERT DEQOOY, Roger PEIRIDES, Galerie 6., DESLOUIS ...
Roger DEQUOY art dealer Rue la Bofitio, Alfred DABER art dealer Bid, Houssmann (in connection with TANNER of Zurich), Cesar de HAUCKE art dealer.
J.R. et des INDES PERDOUX, Yves DABERAlfred PERRET-VIBERT DEQUOY, Roger PETRIDES, Galerie 0. DESLOUIS POPOFF, Alexandre DESMARETS et ...
Basic Source Documents On Emil Daber Ez Gea Branch › Page 2 ... partner is the non-aryan Mr Alfred Seligmann, residence Berlin 1 Handicraft sole enterprise, ...
J.R. et des INDES , PERDOUX, Yves DABERAlfred PERRET-VIBERT DEQUOY, Roger PET RIDES, Galerie 0. DESLOUIS POPOFF, Alexandre DESMARETS ...
Naine of Owner a Emil Daber b Max Marschenz beide Komplimenfare va- n n.no npc r l(jf'n ti imers 'AK, o Dipl. Ing. Alfred Sellgmaim d Paul Hildebrandt beiae ...
... Hans ciiamann Kapferer, Henry Creusot, Mademoiselle Katz, Manfred, alias Boyer, alias Thomas DaberAlfred Alfred Degroof j Keller Delneco, Emile Khoth,  ...


5) Art Books by Alfred Daber

The obvious question is what credibility could any provenance text written by Alfred Daber have concerning the ownership history of an artwork during the Nazi era?