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Nazi-era Provenance Research

During the years 1933-1945, the Nazis conducted the largest confiscation of cultural property known in history. Although many works were restituted to their rightful owners after World War II, many works entered the art market and eventually new collections.

In 1999, the American Association of Museums issued their Guidelines Concerning the Unlawful Appropriation of Objects during the Nazi-Era. Amended in 2001, these guidelines require museums to review the provenance of works of art in their collection that may have been looted during the Nazi/World War II era, specifically European paintings and objects of Judaica made before 1946 and acquired after 1932 that could have been in Europe during those years and/or experienced a change in ownership during that time.

At that time, the Cincinnati Art Museum began a critical review of the provenance of its European paintings, identifying 243 European paintings in its collection that were created before 1946 and acquired after 1932. Of these, 143 have been identified as having an incomplete provenance between 1932 and 1946. An additional 6 paintings have fully documented ownership histories during the Nazi-era but underwent a change of ownership in continental Europe during that time.

The research presented here includes detailed provenance entries on these 149 European paintings. The inclusion of a painting on the following list does not signify that it was subject to Nazi looting; it simply identifies it as a work of art with a gap in its history of ownership between 1932 and 1946 or that underwent a change of ownership in continental Europe during those years.

The Cincinnati Art Museum’s curatorial staff is dedicated to collection and dissemination of this information and continues to review all existing documents pertaining to the history of ownership of these works. The entries presented here will be updated as new information becomes available.

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Provenance Research Resources

Research Links

Standards Regarding the Unlawful Appropriation of Objects During the Nazi Era
The American Alliance of Museums

Report of the Association of Art Museum Directors Task Force on the Spoliation of Art During the Nazi World War II (1933-1945)
The Association of Art Museum Directors

Lost Art Internet Database
The German government's list of more than 2,200 looted artworks.

The Documentation Project
Project for the Documentation of Wartime Cultural Losses

The National Archives and Records Administration of the United States

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States

Bibliography

Akinsha, Konstantin and Grigorii Kozlov. Beautiful Loot: The Soviet Plunder of Europe's Art Treasures. New York: Random House, 1995.

Barron, Stephanie. "Degenerate Art": The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany. exh. cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.

Farmer, Walter I. The Safekeepers: A Memoir of the Arts at the End of World War II. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000.

Feliciano, Hector. The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art. New York: Basic Books, 1997.

Kurtz, Michael J. Nazi Contraband: American Policy on the Return of European Cultural Treasures, 1945-1955. New York: Garland, 1985.

Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

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.

Trienens, Howard J. Landscape with Smokestacks: The Case of the Allegedly Plundered Degas. Evanstan, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2000.

Yeide, Nancy H., Konstantin Akinsha, and Amy L. Walsh. The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. Washington: American Association of Museums, 2001.