Nazi looted art restitution claims case studies: Newsletter April 2023 – N°16

To read the complete newsletter, please see: https://www.restitutiecommissie.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Network-Newsletter-no.16-April2023.pdf

In this post, we reproduce the case studies published in April 2023 (Number 16) by the Network of European Restitution Committees on Nazi-Looted Art (originally published by the Advisory Commission)

• CASE STUDY Update: A German family hands over to France two paintings stolen in Brittany during the Occupation 
• CASE STUDY Restitution to heirs of Dr. Erich Stern 
• CASE STUDY The painter Hirschenhauser and a special work of art 
• CASE STUDY The Fritz Illner collection. Provenance Research in the Natural History Museum Vienna 

(Searchable text with some names highlighted)

Advisory Commission on the Return of Cultural Property Seized as a Result of Nazi persecution: recommendations in searchable text

This is a searchable text-only copy of recommendations originally published by the Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property  (Beratende Kommission NS-Raubgut)

• Robert Graetz
• Kurt and Else Grawi
• Heinrich Rieger
• Max Fischer
• Dr. and Mrs. Max Stern
• Max J. Emden
• Max und Margarethe Rüdenberg
• Felix Hildesheimer
• Alfred Salomon 
• Alfred Flechtheim
• Ludwig Traube
• Eduard L. Behrens
• Clara Levy geb. Isaak
• J.S. Goldschmidt, I. Rosenbaum und Z.M. Hackenbroch 
• Paul Westheim
• Alexander Lewin
• Julius und Clara Freund

Using ChatGPT to detect language indicating uncertainty in provenance texts

In this conversation with the AI ChatBot, I asked it to look at the provenance text for Picasso's Woman with Pears, at the MoMa.

The provenance text on MoMa's website is:

[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris and/or Ambroise Vollard, Paris and/or Galerie Thannhauser, Munich] 

By September 7, 1919 (1912 or 1913?) - at least October 1932, Alfred Flechtheim and/or Galerie Flechtheim, Düsseldorf, Berlin and London. 

By February 1934(?) - March 1937, The Mayor Gallery and/or Douglas Cooper, London. 

March 1937, Pierre Matisse Gallery (consignment no. 882, stock no. 594), New York, purchased from “Cooper”.  

March 31, 1937 - June 2, 1955, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York, purchased from Pierre Matisse Gallery. 

June 2, 1955 - 1996, Florene May Marx (1903-1995, later Schoenborn) and Samuel A. Marx (1948–1964), Chicago, purchased from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. through M. Knoedler & Co. (consignment no. 4786), New York. 

1996, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as bequest from Florene May Schoenborn.

I asked ChatGPT to break the provenance text into sentences and to identify any indications of uncertainty or speculation in each. Then I requested that it present the results in a table.

(I requested that it view "and/or" as uncertain.)

Sentence	Indications of Uncertainty or Speculation
[Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris and/or Ambroise Vollard, Paris and/or Galerie Thannhauser, Munich]	Indication of uncertainty in the gallery names
By September 7, 1919 (1912 or 1913?) - at least October 1932, Alfred Flechtheim and/or Galerie Flechtheim, Düsseldorf, Berlin, and London.	Uncertainty about the specific year (1912 or 1913) and presence of "and/or"
By February 1934(?) - March 1937, The Mayor Gallery and/or Douglas Cooper, London.	Uncertainty about the specific date (February 1934) and presence of "and/or"
March 1937, Pierre Matisse Gallery (consignment no. 882, stock no. 594), New York, purchased from "Cooper."	None
1996, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as bequest from Florene May Schoenborn.	None

Then I asked ChatGPT: 

what is the first year for which there is solid information

ChatGPT replied:

The first year for which there is solid information in the given text is 1937.

Looted art: I asked ChatGPT for assistance writing code in R to classify 20,000 artworks

I asked ChatGPT for help writing a program in R to classify whether an artwork is ok, a forgery, or Nazi loot. What do you think of the result?

Analyzing Nazi-era provenance gaps with ChatGPT