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Looted Art Claims Database Project

Our methodology focusses on the recovery and contextualisation of critical historical data and the analysis of this data related to European Impressionist & Modern Art. This is due to the significant financial risks these artworks pose to owners in terms of authenticity and restitution, a fundamental lack of transparency by 'experts' and the extensive poor management of the accurate historical records of these artworks.

Introduction

Compiling and assessing evidence related to restitution claims is highly complex, made significantly more so due to the lack of collated and contextualised data both in public and private archives that has been available to researchers to date. Often researchers are accessing information based on the research requirements of one artwork, however this causes a significant weakness in contextual understanding of the archive materials. Especially when the archive holders have reorganised the cataloguing, separating out the records from their original format and the finding aids to the materials are limited in scope.

The available public data present via online platforms related to confiscated art; the Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume, The Central Registry of Information on Looted Property 1933-45, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna; Zentral Depot Karterian (ZDK) and Art Loss Register are based on collated data sourced from predominantly German or Allied created resources rather than the records made by the claimants, which has created significant 'blind spots' in the web based resources. These 'blind spots' are protected by disclaimers on certifications issued by database holders and bring limited comfort to collectors wishing to understand if an artwork carries restitution risk.

The Aim Of The Project

To collate, contextualise and assess archive material data related to confiscated European Impressionist and Modern art. To be able to significantly improve judgements via contextualisation regarding the weight of evidence contained in records contemporary to the period of confiscation. To be able to offer more definitive and robust statements related to restitution risk profiling of artworks for collectors.

Pre-research on the details of specific records strongly indicated that the data had NOT been incorporated into either Art Loss Registry databases, The Central Registry of Information on Looted Property 1933-45 database or the Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume. This revealed that there was a significant opportunity to collate data that had not been contextually studied. Data from claimant submissions and the contextualising of these submissions with the records made by the Germans and Allies on the artworks the German's looted would, for the first time, reveal significant missing data and meaningful patterns within that data.

The Opportunity To Create A Dataset That Offers Deeper Meaning For Artwork Owners

In order to produce an effective dataset and due to archive materials being largely searchable via claimant name (not artist / artwork title), it was only possible to gain a full perspective on the claims made if they were studied one at a time. To ensure data integrity it is paramount that the project attempts to assess all known and existing Claimant files until we exhaust all potential sources.

What Source Material Data Is Being Collated & Updated?

So far the project has studied claimant submissions, claimant 'proof of ownership' records and post-war research files by using archive materials gathered from a number of international sources: Commission de récupération artistique, l'Office des Biens et intérêts privés, ERR, MAEE, AMEAE, DHM, OMGUS, WGA, Bundesarchiv, BADV, NARA, National Archives Kew (UK), Rose Valland's Archive, Catalogue Raisonnes, Private Archives of Claimant Families, Art Dealer Administration records, the Archives of media publications (1939-1955) and various photographic Archives, further additional archives are also being identified and contacted.

How Is The Data Contextualised?

The data on each artwork is placed in the the dataset and the information is then directly compared to:

Online resources of looted objects The published known history, if the artwork is acknowledged (attributed) Exhibition and literature history of the artwork pre-and-post confiscation Claimant provenance annotations Correspondences received by and sent from Claimants Compensation settlement inventories Auction records pre and post-confiscation Additional Claimant Family Archives Records of restitutions Various related media records 1933-present

Data Outcome Recorded

All the data encountered during the data testing is layered into the core dataset. This creates the ability to cross reference multiple source materials and formulate reports based on a contextual understanding of each artwork's circumstances. It also enables us for the first time to understand one artwork's circumstances in relation to others, particularly when disputes arise over artwork identifications. These disputes over artworks revealed in the records contemporary to the period are as relevant today in current restitution case disputes.

The Focus Artists Of The Project:

European Impressionist and Modern Artworks are contained in the project data ONLY. These are paintings, drawings and sculptures not prints. The reason for focusing on only European Impressionist and Modern Art is the value of the data to the art market, the heirs and the collectors who wish to know more definitive information about artworks they legitimately own. By keeping the focus of the data narrow, the project has created a self-funding system that allows the data to be continually updated over time.

The Project Data contains ONLY the following artists:

Ernst Barlach Max Beckmann Pierre Bonnard Constantin Brancusi Georges Braque Mary Cassatt Paul Cezanne Jean-Baptitst Corot Henri-Edmond Cross Marc Chagall Giorgio de Chirico Salvador Dali Honore Daumier Edgar Degas Robert Delaunay Paul Delvaux Andre Derain Otto Dix Kees Van Dongen Raoul Dufy Othon Frieze Paul Gauguin Vincent Van Gogh Natalia Goncharova

Juan Gris George Grosz Erich Heckel Ferdinand Hodler Alexej Jawlenski Moise Kisling Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Paul Klee Gustav Klimt Oscar Kokoschka Marie Laurencin Fernand Leger Max Liebermann Stanislas Lepine Rene Magritte Edward Manet Henri Manguin Albert Marquet Henri Matisse Amedeo Modigliani Claude Monet Berthe Morisot Felix Mueller Otto Mueller

Emil Nolde Francis Picabia Pablo Picasso Camille Pissarro Jean Puy Odilon Redon Pierre Auguste Renoir Auguste Rodin Georges Rouault Henri Rousseau Egon Schiele Schmidt-Rottluf Georges Seurat Paul Signac Alfred Sisley Cham Soutine Dunoyer de Segonzac Toulouse-Lautrec Maurice de Vlaminck Suzanne Valadon Felix Valloton Edouard Vuillard

Significant Findings So Far:

Some claimant names are recorded in the online databases, but the artworks listed on the inventories within the Claimant files were NOT.

An important critical finding was that the photographs submitted by claimants were significantly understudied and differ from the photographs of looted artworks held on record in online databases created from German made photos. The photographs provided by the claimants contribute substantially to the identification of artworks previously not clearly identifiable.

The data also shows artworks confiscated and restituted that are also not recorded within online databases.

The definition of 'confiscated' is broad; encompassing objects looted directly by Nazi personnel and also by those who saw an opportunity to confiscate property in a pro-Nazi environment.

As the research is continuing the data has shown additional anomalies:

• Inventories of Claimant names are not complete, also names are spelt in multiple ways or sometimes omitted when their files are actually visible within the records.
• The Claimants, where photos were not provided of artworks, often cite reproduction references from auctions, exhibitions and Catalogue Raisonne's. It appears these reproduction references were not investigated by the claim administrators or re-annotated into subsequent records, therefore artworks appear to have been visually unrecognised.
• Recorded information from original source archives to online databases are 'patchy' containing some artworks but not others mentioned in the same claimant folder. It is unclear why this is so.
• In rare cases photographs of artworks used to demonstrate looted pieces on the online databases were dismissed as matches within the claimant files by the claimants themselves.
• There is photographic data confusion within the online databases and also some claimant names were attributed to photographs in error. This was partly caused when the Photographs were in some instances separated from the original claim files, occasionally we encounter partial transfers of photographic files. It has been a priority of the project to reunite the correct photos with the correct claimants.
• Fraudulent attempts to claim artworks by members of the Nazi Party were a surprise.
• Photographs for artworks sold by claimant's legitimately before 1939 also appear and cause added confusion to the contextual landscape.
• There are disputes over the authenticity of artworks apparent in the data.
• There are disputes over the dimensions of the artworks apparent in the data.
• On rare occasions there are multiple claimant names associated with the same artworks.
• Confusion over the definitions and location of 'Missing' or 'Lost' claimant folders with the Archive inventories appears common.

These initial findings indicate the need for the development of a contextualised resource related to each artwork's circumstances due to the many complexities that make assessing confiscated artworks challenging.

Number of Claimants Assessed & Artworks Collated So Far

Number of Claimant files assessed so far is 638,560, there are further Claimant folders to analyse in the current dataset.

The number of Claimant files 'lost' and no longer present in the archives is also being assessed, this is challenging due to the way the inventories have been written and how the archive materials have been formatted.

The current number of individual Claimant folders that contain references to European Impressionist and Modern artworks that have been identified is 820. Claimants are recorded from the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Norway, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, UK, Uruguay,USA, USSR and Yugoslavia.

Number of artworks identified and held in the current data is over 4,600.

Out of these over 4,600 artworks:

1.90% of them are represented within The Central Registry of Information on Looted Property 1933-45

21.06% of them are included in the 1947 postwar publication 'List of property removed from France during the war 1939 -1945.'

38.16% are recorded within theCultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume

8.19% are recorded in the post-war Germany Collecting Point Data

5.33% Artworks are recorded listed without known owners

A Photographic Dataset is prepared. Metadata has been applied to the dataset that allows rapid searches on specific artworks and specific collector names. Currently there are photographs depicting 1,560 artworks which are visible in the data. 542 of these artworks are visible only within the Looted Art Claims Project data and are not visibly present in other databases and remain invisible to Collectors.

The data collation is ongoing. Analysis of the core data is expected to be complete by the third quarter of 2024. This website will be continually updated during this process. It is expected that continual additions will be made to this resource over time.

Contacting The Project

If you are an institutional or private collector that holds a European Impressionist or Modern artwork that has unclear provenance between 1933-1946 you would be welcome to contact us to inquire if your artwork appears within the data.

For specialist Art Lawyers involved in restitution cases; the data will be able to provide highly valuable information related to equivalent cases and materials contemporary to the period that demonstrate how arguments related to artwork identifications were made or were considered insubstantial, this can be vital context that can assist both defensive and offensive arguments within cases.

Once the core data has been fully collected we will also reach out to Catalogue Raisonne producers with missing details on artworks whose confiscations and restitutions have not been recorded.