Glossary Terms

Chapter 2

  • Changing Hands: used to describe the different transactions of an art object in relation to its provenance
  • The American Association of Museums Guide to Provenance Research (AAM): is used globally by museums and private individuals who are interested in knowing the databases in place and processes involved in independent provenance research by country
  • Roberts Commission: was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 to work with the U.S. military and both European and American based museum officials or art historians to protect European art and records from being damaged or lost
  • Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD): established the Report of the AAMD Task Force on the Spoliation of Art during the Nazi/World War II Era (1933-1945), which stresses American museums’ commitment to publishing and researching databases of museum collections to make them more widely available for the continued research and restitution of unlawfully confiscated works of art from WWII on a case-by-case basis
  • Nuremberg Laws: were enacted to officially exclude Jewish members of society, limiting their rights and German citizenship
  • Fischer: The Swiss auction house Fischer engaged in one of the most notorious auctions of degenerate art
  • Commission for Exploitation of Degenerate Art: created by Goebbels, the commission was in charge of selling degenerate art abroad in exchange for old masters for the NS-Party
  • Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR): One of the most extensive art-looting commissions undertaken by the Nazi regime
  • Jeu de Paume: one of the largest clearing houses in Paris of Nazi looted art from 1940 to 1944
  • Linz Commission: Hitler created the commission to acquire works of art for his museum to be located in his childhood home in Linz, Austria
  • Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU): established in 1944, it was created in order to investigate individuals suspected of participating in art looting during World War II
  • US Office of Strategic Services (OSS): an agency established during World War II by the United States under which in 1942 the special unit ALIU was founded
  • National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): the primary resource for the documentation of World War II art looting in the US. In 1999 NARA published the Holocaust-Era Assets: A Finding Aid to Records at the National Archives at College Park
  • Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP): After World War II, repositories of Nazi confiscated art were located around Germany and were known as ‘central collecting points’
  • Safehaven: established in 1944 in an attempt to prevent Germany from giving assets such as art objects to neutral nations to prevent such assets from becoming unavailable for restitution after World War II
  • Custodianship: used in reference to countries of origin where objects of art were perhaps not claimed or identified after World War II with an owner and have thus remained under the care of the individual governments
  • Bundesdenkmalamt (BDA): archive in Austria which includes files on the MCCP, previous locations of Nazi looted art collections such as the Alt Aussee mines, collections of Austrian museums and a significant amount on Hitler’s Linz Commission
  • Dorotheum: auction house in Austria founded in 1707
  • Verwertungsstelle für jüdisches Umzugsgut der Gestapo (VUGESTA): Not late after Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, the VUGESTA was established in 1940 which seized and confiscated Jewish assets and property to be sold at a later time
  • Reichsfluchsteuer: discriminatory taxes against Jews
  • Bundesarchiv Koblenz: government archive in Germany
  • Treuhandlverwaltung für Kulturgut be der Oberfinanzdirection Munchen (B323): important documents for provenance research held at the Bundesarchiv Koblenz, containing files that deal with the ownership status of looted cultural property and restitution after 1945
  • Washington Principles: a set of guidelines signed by forty-four different countries in 1998 which set a standard that is still used to this day by most member countries as the main reference and model to follow in regard to restitution
  • Statement by the Federal Government, the Länder and the national associations of local authorities on the tracing and return of Nazi-confiscated art, especially Jewish Property of December 1999, also referred to as the Joint Declaration or Common Statement: followed the Washington Principles, outlining the continued efforts of Germany to search for Nazi-confiscated art in public institutions such as museums and calling for research and restitution where necessary
  • Commission pour l’Indemnisation des Victims de Spoliations, Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation, also referred to as (CIVS): established by France in 1999 after the Washington Principles, examining individual claims of heirs or claims on behalf of heirs who incurred damage from spoliations of property during World War II
  • Musées Nationaux Récupération (MNR): a significant cataloguing designation in provenance research given to art objects in the custody of the French national museum system which were recovered after World War II in Germany
  • Spoliation Advisory Panel: established by the UK in 2000, which considers claims of heirs or on behalf of heirs who lost possession of cultural objects between 1933 and 1945

Chapter 5

  • Advisory Commission: established in 2003 by the German Federal Government for the return of cultural property seized due to Nazi persecution
  • “Red-Flag” Names: a list of names of some of the most frequently mentioned names of individuals involved in art looting in Europe compiled by ALIU
  • Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen (BADV): files which include documentations of the compensation proceedings in Germany immediately after World War II
  • Act on the Settlement of Unresolved Property Claims (VermG): an act, within the parameters of the BADV, which under administrative law takes precedent over the Common Statement for the restitution of works of art confiscated between 1933-1945
  • The Compensation for National Socialist Injustices: published by the German Federal Ministry of Finance, which provides a history of the compensations offered in Germany after World War II
  • Federal Restitution Act (1957): was in place for claims against Germany and other entities who were involved in Nazi-confiscations
  • Additional Federal Compensation Act (1953): applied to the entire Federal Republic of Germany and was based on the initial compensation provisions in the occupied zones
  • Federal Compensation Act (1956): extended eligibility and forms of compensation to victims of National Socialism, most notably the one-off payments for restitution claims. The original deadline of the act was 1957, but was extended to 1958
  • Final Federal Compensation Act (1965): extended once more the compensation application deadline of 1958 to 1969
  • Jewish Claims Conference (JCC): represents Jewish victims and their heirs of Nazi persecutions for compensations and restitutions
  • Widergutmachungsansprüche: reparation claims during the Federal Restitution Act
  • Stifftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK): established in 1957 by the German Federal law, it is one of the leading institutions of provenance research, including museums, libraries and archives, which look at provenance in relation to acquisitions, restitutions and documentation of objects
  • World Jewish Congress (WJC): a non-profit organization which acts as a federation of Jewish organizations that represent Jewish communities and people
  • Mosse Art Research Initiative (MARI): founded in 2017 by the Free University of Berlin and the German-Jewish Mosse family heirs, in a “public-private partnership”. This partnership between NS-Party prosecuted descendants and German institutions has included multiple museums and cultural institutions around Germany including the SPK
  • Commission for Art Recovery: works towards restituting Nazi-looted art from 1933-1945, including aid in the provenance research process and the legal barriers involved with claims
  • German American Provenance Research Exchange Program (PREP): As a way to bring museum experts from Germany and the United States together, Jane Milosch, director of the Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative, organized PREP as a three-year program with the SPK in Germany. The program speaks for a more multi-disciplinary on-going provenance research for the future, as it plans to create, with the J. Paul Getty Museum an online resource guide for German-American provenance research

Provenance Research And The Many Chasms:

The Case Of Gurlitt, An Ongoing Search

by Marina Rastorfer

Columbia University MA Thesis 2020

Databases On Looted Art And Sources For Continued Research

One of the greatest obstacles in provenance research is identifying all of the databases available and applicable for locating lost works of art. Researching families, collectors, dates, artists or works of art from 1933-1945 all require sifting through numerous online inventories and archives. These resources often provide differing information from one database to the next regarding the same work of art due to conflicting names, titles, dates et cetera that have been allocated in the past. In order to proceed with preliminary research, access to government and national archives is often required. Depending on the country of origin, these archives are only in their native language or extremely restrictive as to who can access the information. Based on this, the categorization below focuses on some of the most important countries for conducting provenance research and that provide online resources for research. Among these countries are Germany, Austria, Israel, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands. Included are resources for finding out more about Judaic assets, looted art specifically from 1933-1945, the Holocaust, private museum collections or research projects, government funded resources and websites that help direct further to other sites for continued art historical and/ or provenance research.

National Archives:

National Archives

German Federal Archives

Austrian State Archive

Holocaust:

The Holocaust Collection

Yad Vashem

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

European Holocaust Research Infrastructure

Museum Databases:

The Getty Provenance Index Databases

Germany:

Research Results Module (German Lost Art Foundation)

Special Commission Linz (Deutsches Historisches Museum)

SPK Digital (Prussian Cultural Heritage)

Database to the Central Collecting Point Munich

UK:

Art Loss Register

Collections Trust (Spoliation Research by UK Museums for 1933-1945)

Helpful For Continued Research:

Looted Art

Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal

International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property

International Foundation for Art Research

Research Initiatives:

Alfred Flechtheim

MARI Online Portal (Mosse Art Research Initiative)

France:

Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume (Claims Conference)

MNR (Musées Nationaux Récupération)

Austria:

National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism

Austrian State Archive

Netherlands:

Origins Unknown

Literature:

Books:

  • Anne Burdick, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner and Jeffrey Schnapp. Digital_Humanities
  • Bundeskunsthalle and Kunstmuseum Bern, Gurlitt Status Report (Munich: Hirmer, 2017).
  • Grafahrend-Gohmert, Dorothee, Julia Friedrich, and Kasper König. Modernist Masterpieces: The Haubrich Collection at Museum Ludwig. Köln: Walther König, 2013.
  • Gunnar Schnabel and Monika Tatzkow, The Story of Street Scene Restitution of Nazi Looted Art Case and Controversy. Berlin: proprietas-verlag, 2008.
  • Hickley, Catherine. Gurlitts Schatz: Hitlers Kunsthändler Und Sein Geheimes Erbe. Wien: Czernin Verlag, 2016.
  • Hubert Portz, Zimmer Frei Für Cornelia Gurlitt, Lotte Wahle Und Conrad Felixmüller. Landau: KnechtVerlag, 2014.
  • Inka Bertz, Michael Dorrmann, Jüdisches Museum Berlin, and Jüdischen Museums Frankfurt am Main, Raub Und Restitution Kulturgut Aus Jüdischem Besitz Von 1933 Bis Heute. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2008.
  • Jonathan Petropoulos, Art as Politics in the Third Reich. Chapell Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
  • Koldehoff, Stefan. Die Bilder Sind Unter Uns: Das Geschäft Mit Der NS-Raubkunst Und Der Fall Gurlitt. Berlin : Galiani, 2014.
  • List, Burkhart. Die Affäre Deutsch: Braune Netzwerke Hinter Dem Größten Raubkunst- Skandal. Berlin: Eulenspiegel Verlagsgruppe Buchverlag, 2018.
  • Mary Lane, Hitler's Last Hostages: Looted Art and the Soul of the Third Reich. New York: PublicAffairs, 2019.
  • Meier, Oliver, Michael Feller, and Stefanie Christ. Der Gurlitt-Komplex: Bern Und Die Raubkunst. Chronos, 2017.
  • Nancy H Yeide, Konstantin Akinsha, and Amy L Walsh, The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2001.
  • Remy, Maurice Philip. Der Fall Gurlitt: Die Wahre Geschichte Über Deutschlands Größten Kunstskandal. Europa Verlag, 2017.
  • Ronald, Susan. Hitler's Art Thief. New York, NY: St. Martins Press, 2015.
  • Simon Goodman, The Orpheus Clock The SEARCH for MY FAMILY'S ART TREASURES STOLEN by the NAZI. New York: Scribner, 2015.

Scholarly Writings