Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

World War II-Era Provenance Research Project

Historical Context

From 1933 to 1945, Germany’s National Socialist regime engaged in a campaign of art looting unprecedented in its scale, organization, and ambition. Nazi art looting had antisemitic motivations and also functioned as a tactic to deprive occupied nations of their cultural patrimony. Initially, the Nazis primarily targeted Jewish collections in Germany and Austria. Many Jewish art collectors were forced to sell art “under duress” (through Nazi coercion) or to raise funds needed to flee Europe.

The so-called “degenerate art” campaign involved the confiscation of approximately 21,000 works of modern (mostly German) works from German state–administered art museums; about 600 of the works were displayed in the propaganda exhibition Degenerate Art in 1937. These works can be searched in a database created by the Freie Universität in Berlin.

Following the outbreak of war, private (mostly, but not only, Jewish) and public collections were looted in the countries occupied by the Nazis. Some of the looted objects ended up in the collections of high-ranking Nazi officials, including Hitler, who intended to create Europe’s largest art museum (the Führermuseum) in his hometown of Linz, Austria. Other works were sold at auction or simply destroyed. An agency known as the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) was established to oversee art confiscations in occupied territories, especially France. Throughout Europe, Judaica (Jewish ceremonial and ritual objects) and Torah scrolls were also looted from homes and synagogues by the Nazis.

At the end of the war, as Allied forces moved into Germany, additional thefts—often from museums—occurred. In many cases, these were opportunistic thefts, sometimes motivated by a desire for revenge against the Nazis. The Soviet army, for example, looted numerous works of art from museums in Berlin, Dresden, and other cities in the east of Germany.

Under the auspices of the U.S. Army’s Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Division, many looted artworks were returned to their countries of origin. However, looted art continues to surface in museums and on the art market. In December 1998, representatives of forty-four nations participated in the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets; the resulting Washington Conference Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art recommended that resources be allocated toward the identification and publication of still un-restituted looted art.

Research at the Eskenazi Museum of Art

In 2004, a Nazi-Era Provenance Research Project was established at the Eskenazi Museum of Art to systematically research the provenance of works of art that may have been in continental Europe between 1933 and 1945. We follow the American Alliance of Museum’s Guidelines Concerning the Unlawful Appropriation of Objects During the Nazi Era. In 2011, we restituted a painting to the Jagdschloss Grunewald in Berlin after determining it had been looted by an Allied soldier in the aftermath of the war.

Our goal is to publish the known provenances (including exhibition history) for all European paintings, sculptures, drawings, and Judaica (Jewish ritual objects) created before 1946 in Collections Online. While researching works with gaps in provenance between 1933 and 1945 is our highest priority, it is important to note that gaps during this time period do not necessarily indicate that the work was looted, confiscated, or otherwise transferred in an illegal or unethical manner. Gaps in provenance are common due to the loss of documentation over time. In addition, conducting provenance research is a lengthy and complicated process; it may take years to piece together an object’s provenance. The provenance information posted online is continually updated as new information comes to light.

Further Resources

Suggestions for Further Reading

• Barron, Stephanie, ed. “Degenerate Art:” The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. Exh. cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
• Feigenbaum, Gail, and Inge Reist, eds. Provenance: An Alternative History of Art. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2012.
• Feliciano, Hector. The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art. New York: Basic Books/Harper Collins, 1997.
• Nicholas, Lynn. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Art Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Knopf, 1994.
• Peters, Olaf, ed. Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937. Exh. cat. New York: Neue Galerie, 2014.
• Petropoulos, Jonathan. Art as Politics in the Third Reich. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
• Petropoulos, Jonathan. The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. The Spoils of War: World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997.
• Yeide, Nancy H., Konstantin Akinsha, and Amy L. Walsh. The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2001.

Online Databases and Resources

• Getty Research Institute, Collecting and Provenance Research Portal   https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/provenance/index.html
• National Archives: International Nazi-Era Records Internet Portal  https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2011/nr11-110.html
• Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property, 1933-1945 (links to numerous databases, publications, etc.; sign up to receive their weekly email)  https://lootedart.com/
• “Entartete Kunst” Database: Freie Universität Berlin (German and English; traces provenances of the ca. 21,000 works confiscated in the “degenerate art” purge)  https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/db_entart_kunst/datenbank/index.html
• Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume (database of objects seized by the ERR-Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in Paris during WWII)  https://www.errproject.org/jeudepaume/
• International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR): Provenance Guide  https://www.ifar.org/provenance_guide.php