Categories

Research Databases

Left to right: ERR card (kiddush cup, Rothschild collection), MCCP Control Number File, MCCP Restitution Card File (Frans Hals painting);

The following provides an overview of existing looted art/Judaica as well as provenance research databases worldwide. For a more in-depth description as well as information on the various organizations that administer the databases listed below, please see section on: Resources: National Organizations.

Please also note that databases of individual museums are not listed in this section. For country specific information, please also refer to section on Resources: National Organizations.

Archival Databases

Jewish Digital Cutural Recovery Project (JDCRP)

Jewish Digital Cutural Recovery Project (JDCRP): In July 2021, the JDCRP completed its pilot project co-funded by the European Union (EU): The Fate of the Adolphe Schloss Collection. The goal of the JDCRP pilot project was to test the feasibility of building a comprehensive database containing historical-archival information about Jewish-owned cultural and artistic objects that were forcibly displaced between 1933 and 1945. The database provides information on artworks looted, the people and organizations involved as well as a historical timeline.

The second part of the JDCRP’s pilot project is to link archival repositories on Nazi-looted cultural property focusing on populating its emerging cross-searchable digital data platform. The project will consolidate a selected group of digitized archival data on plundered cultural property to enable keyword searches at the document level. Archival material from the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point of the American Allied Forces, as well as from the records of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) Nazi looting agency will be included. The Claims Conference is among the sponsors of this project.

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

The International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property  is the result of collaboration among archives and research institutions from a variety of countries to provide online access to widely-dispersed records of the Nazi Era. The online research tool is dedicated to extending public access to the widely-dispersed records of the Nazi era. The Claims Conference is a participant in its own right but also has enabled through its various projects the involvement of many of the other governmental and non-governmental participant organizations.

Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg

The database Cultural Plunder of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume is a a joint project of the Claims Conference and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The ERR database brings together for the first time in searchable illustrated form the remaining registration cards and photographs produced by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) covering more than 40,000 art objects taken from Jews in German-occupied France and, to a lesser extent, in Belgium. The database is searchable by individual objects and by the owners from whom these objects were taken.

Additional Research Databases

The German Historical Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum, DHM) provides three databases:
a)      Sonderauftrag Linz (Special Commission Linz) 
b)      Munich Central Collecting Point Database
c)      Hermann Göring Database

The Getty Provenance Index Databases by the Getty Research Institute provides access to the following resources:
a)      German Sales Catalogs (1930-1945) covering bibliographic information on more than 2,000 German Sales Catalogs published between 1930 and 1945;
b)      Collectors Files;
c)      The Sales Catalogs Files covering countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia from 1650 to 1945.

Looted Valuables: The Holocaust Asset Collection is part of the Fold3 archival material relating to looted cultural property. The online available records coming from the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States include the following collections: Ardelia Hall Collection – Records Concerning the Central Collecting Points; Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) Records; Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Records; Roberts Commission Records; U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA) Records; Safehaven Records; ERR records; World War II War Crimes Records;

Entartete Kunst database (Degenerate Art database) has been published by the Freie Universität Berlin.

The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) holds the only known copy of a complete inventory of “Entartete Kunst” confiscated by the Nazi regime from public institutions between 1937 and 1938. The list, with more than 16,000 entries, was produced by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) in 1942. The lists are accessible online.

As of October 2021, the portal of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) offers access to information on Holocaust-related archival material held in institutions across Europe and beyond: this includes information on 62 countries (“Country Reports“); information on 2,204 archival institutions in 60 countries; as well as information on 325,512 archival descriptions in 763 institutions.

The JDC Archive is online available and provides access to over 1,7 million pages and photographs from its founding in 1914 to the present.

The Leo Baeck Institute provides a significant subset of its collection online, which includes archival manuscripts, memoirs, books and periodicals as well as audio recordings.

The Jewish Heritage Network provides access to 714,152 records from 26 sources, including archival recources, Hebrew mansucripts or for example photographs.

Yerusha is an online platform which unites Jewish archival heritage held in hundreds of archives, libraries and museums across Europe.

The Arolsen Archives are an international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most extensive collection of documents about the victims and survivors of National Socialism. The documents relate to the various groups persecuted by the Nazi regime and contain references to around 17.5 million people, making them an important source of knowledge for society today.

The Archives Portal Europe provides access to information on archival material from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent.

Provenance Markings Databases

Datenbank Provenienzmerkmale: Austria’s Commission for Provenance Research provides access to a provenance markings database (“Datenbank Provenienzmerkmale”). The database is not publicly available, but access can be requested from members of Austria’s Commission for Provenance Research.

ProvenienzWiki – Platform for provenance research and provenance indexing: The site ProvenienzWiki – Plattform für Provenienzforschung und Provenienzerschließung, is administered by the Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverband (GBV), the Common Library Network of German States. The platform provides a list of various types of provenance markings. See for example the listing for Nazi looted cultural property: https://provenienz.gbv.de/Kategorie:NS-Raubgut; or the list of Exlibris: https://provenienz.gbv.de/Kategorie:Exlibris

Looted Cultural Assets: The database “Looted Cultural Assets”, a cooperation of various German libraries conducting provenance research, provides images of provenance markings. Provenance markings can be accessed here: https://db.lootedculturalassets.de/index.php/MultiSearch/Index?search=provenienzmerkmal

Proveana: The database Proveana provides 113 provenance marking entries.

The Deutsche Fotothek provides provenance markings of objects suspected of having been looted for several institutions. Among those institutions is the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, the Freiherrlich von Friesen’sche Schlossbibliothek Rötha and the Prinzliche Sekondogenitur-Bibliothek, also located in Dresden. The database also provides 216 additional entries for provenance markings of other libraries, governmental institutions or private individuals.

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: The museum provides online access to 65 stamps, stickers and various other provenance markings.

The Fondation Custodia made available Frits Lugt’s reference work Les Marques de collections de dessins & d’estampes, published in 1921, and the Supplément of 1956. The database enables research of provenance markings in the form of stamps on drawings, printed graphics and in books.

The Frederikshavn Art Museum and Exlibris Collection provides access to one of the world’s largest online bookplate and exlibris databases, with up to 450,000 entries, entitled the Digital Exlibris Museum.

The Flickr-Album “Bookstamps from Looted Libraries WWII. Photographs of more than 500 bookstamps taken at the Offenbach Archival Depot run by the Office of Military Government, U.S. Zone (Germany)” holds some 514 online accessible images.

The Leo Baeck Institute London for the Study of German-Jewish History and Culture recently published a list of provenance markers found in the institute’s library.

Descriptive Catalogue of Looted Judaica

International Databases

The Claims Conference/WJRO has published a Descriptive Catalogue of Looted Judaica (created 2009 and partially updated 2016).

The Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945 created an object database, which contains details of over 25,000 objects of all kinds – paintings, drawings, antiquities, Judaica, etc – looted, missing and/or identified from over fifteen countries.

The Art Recovery Group provides access to the database “ArtClaim” for lost, stolen and disputed works of art and cultural heritage.

IFAR, the International Foundation for Art Research, provides access to a number of Catalogues Raisonnés. 

ArThemis is a searchable database containing case notes about art and cultural property disputes settled through alternative resolution methods or traditional judicial proceedings.

The Art Loss Register maintains a database of stolen art, antiques and collectables.

Jewish Heritage Europe, a project of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe, is a web portal to news, information and resources concerning Jewish monuments and heritage sites all over Europe.

Judaica Europeana works with libraries, archives and museums and EUROPEANA to provide integrated access to digital collections, which document the Jewish presence and heritage in Europe.

Artive is a non-profit organization that facilitates the protection of cultural property and maintains a database of claimed objects.  Registering an object with the Artive Database is free. In addition, Artive offers to provide reports for individuals or organizations who seek research support regarding the title or provenance of object(s).

The online Dictionary of Art Historians is a biographical database of historic art historians maintained and updated by Duke University.

National Databases

Austria

The Art Database of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria provides information on about 9,400 objects with provenance gaps held by Austria’s federal insitutions as well as objects owned by the city of Vienna. An English edition is also available.

The Commission for Provenance Research provides online access to the Commission’s restitution reports.

The Museum of Fine Arts (Kunsthistorisches Museum) in Vienna together with the Commission for Provenance Research launched a database on the index cards of the central depository regarding seized collections (“Die Karteien des Zentraldepots beschlagnahmter Sammlungen“).

The Wien Museum provides access to five searchable online listings: 1. List of objects – Vugesta purchases 1940-1945, 2. List of objects – Dorotheum purchases 1940-1945, 3. Purchases from art and antique dealers, 4. Public donations, and 5. Purchases and donations by Julius Fargel 1938-1945.

The Findbuch provides access to file holdings relating to National Socialist property seizure and restitution and compensation proceedings which are held at Austria’s State Archives and other cooperating archives.

The Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes (Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance) provides access to an online database of about 64,000 Austrian Jewish Holocaust Victims.

The holdings of Austria’s National Archive are searchable online, however, images of documents are limited.

The Encyclopedia of Austrian Provenance Research – Lexikon der Österreichischen Provenienzforschung – is an online accessible lexica that provides information on people and institutions, which were active in Austria’s cultural institutions as art dealers or collectors between 1930 und 1960.

The  Adolph Lehmann’s allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger (Housing Gazetteer) is an online available apartment index for the years 1859 to 1942.

The database Wohnungsauktionen Wien 1930-1940 (Apartment Auctions Vienna 1930-1940) provides information on apartments (including names of oweners and addresses, if available) that were auctioned off by various acution houses in Vienna between 1930 and 1940.

The database “Reichskunstdepot Kremsmünster – Gemälde: ‘K-Liste'” (Reichskunstdepot Kremsmünster – Painting: ‘K-List) is based on the transcription of the list of paintings that were stored in the Reichskunstdepot Kremsmünster (source: Bundesdenkmalamt [BDA; Federal Monuments Office], Restitution Materials, box 13-4, folder 14). The database provides information, if available, on the original owner (collection), the Linz number, when and where the object was removed from the Reichskunstdepot, if the object was subsequently located at the Altaussee Salt Mine and lastly, if the object was transported to the Munich Central Collecting Point after 1945 (including, if available, its corresponding “Mü number”).

The online Encyclopedia of Austrian Provenance Research, a project by the Commission for Provenance Research, provides information on individuals and institutions who were active in the museum sector, cultural policy, collecting, and the art trade in Austria between 1930 and 1960.

GenTeam- Die Genealogische Datenbank is the largest database of Austrian genealogical records.

Belgium

In February 2022, the database Looted Art WWII Belgium was released. The database holds information on unrecovered works of art that have been looted from individuals and public institutions during the Second World War under occupation in Belgium. The data was taken from 2,797 declaration forms and other archive documents of the former Economic Recovery Service (DER), which was set up shortly after the end World War II. DER was responsible for the detection, recuperation and restitution of movable property in Belgium or abroad that had disappeared from Belgian public or private ownership during the Second World War.

Canada

The Max Stern Art Restitution Project, a project of Concordia University, Canada, provides an online listing of missing works, as well as of recovered works. Max Stern’s book collection, located at Concordia and McGill university as well as at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is accessible online. The website also provides images of Max Stern’s Ex Libris‘.

Czech Republic

The website Restitution-Art provides access to a Database of Works of Art from the Property of Victims of the Holocaust identified as confiscated by the Nazis and held in public collections in the Czech Republic.

The Documentation Centre for Property Transfers of the Cultural Assets of WW II victims provides online access to a database of works of art identified by the Documentation Centre. The database currently lists 1,778 records, some of which are simply labeled as “Jewish Property”.

France

The French Ministry of Culture (Directorate of Museums) maintains a database of approximately 2,000 MNR (Site Rose-Valland, Musées nationaux Récupération) artworks, stolen from French Jews by the Nazis that remain to date in the custody of French museums.

In October 2022, the French Ministry of Culture launched a new website entitled Mission de recherche et de restitution des biens culturels spoliés entre 1933 et 1945 (Mission for the Research and Restitution of Cultural Property Spoliated between 1933 and 1945), which provides online access to provenance research as well as cultural property restitutions in France. Specifically, the website includes information on: a) requests for restitution or compensation, b) looted cultural property, c) cultural property MNR and Base Rose Valland (MNR-Jeu de Paume), d) historical and legal documentation, e) provenance research, f) tools and method, and g) museum and library professionals.

As of October 2023, the French Diplomatic Archives provide online access to the inventories and digitized archives of the Commission de Récupération Artistique (Commission for Art Recovery; CRA) section in the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs files. More than 4,000 archival files, including some 2,700 detailed digital directories and more than 2 million archival pages, are online available. These files include: 1. Les dossiers de réclamations des familles auprès de la Commission de Récupération Artistique (CRA) (Family claims files with the CRA); 2. Les inventaires de l’Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) (1940-1959) (Inventories of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) (1940-1959); 3. Les albums photographiques issus des dossiers de réclamation (Photographic albums from claims files).

The Louvre provides online access to its collection, including more than 1,700 MNR works.

The French Foreign Ministry maintains a database of artworks stolen from and restored to the Schloss family. For more in-depth information on the Schloss collection, see: “The Pilot: Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project“

The Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation (CIVS) provides access to the TED (= tableau et dessin) database that lists paintings and drawings mentioned in files submitted by families to the CIVS. In the specific case of collections spoliated by the ERR or MNR works, the data in the files have been supplemented by information from the corresponding websites.

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute made availabe the records of the Galerie Félix Gérard and Galerie Raphaël Gérard, encompassing the administrative files from the Galerie Félix Gérard as well as photographic reproductions of works from the Galerie Raphaël Gérard. The Galerie Raphaël Gérard conducted business during World War II.

The Commission for Jewish Archives (CFAJ) provides online access to lists on looted cultural property from France.

The Bibliothèque de l’Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art provides an online listing of 7,821 French auction catalogs, including of the Hôtel Drouot, Paris.

The Mémorial de la Shoah provides partial online access to its archives, including its victims database – a listing of names of Jews deported from France as well as of those who died in internment camps in France, internees and victims of executions, as well as the database of Jewish Resistance members listed by the Association des Anciens de la Résistance Juive en France (ARJF-OJC).

The Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA) provides online access to more than 150 biographical articles on persons who were active in the French at market during the German Occupation between 1940 and 1945. The entries were created as part of a Franco-German research project in cooperation with the Technical University of Berlin.

Germany

The Lost Art Database

The Lost Art database administered by the German Lost Art Foundation lists cultural objects which were relocated, moved or seized, especially from Jewish owners, during the Holocaust. Lost Art also provides information for cultural objects with provenance gaps located in Finland, Israel, Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland, as well as objects sought by Italy, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine. As of January 2022, the Lost Art database provides information on 11,165 objects that were restituted.

Proveana

Proveana, a research database of the German Lost Art Foundation, displays the results of research projects that were funded by the Foundation. The “Modul Forschungsergebnisse” (Research Results Module) is the predecessor version of the research database “Proveana”. Proveana also provides information on for example Beteiligte Privatpersonen und Körperschaften am NS-Kulturgutraub (private individuals and corporations involved in the Nazi cultural property theft), private Kunstsammler/Kunstsammlerinnen (Art Collectors), persons involved in NS-Organisationen (NS-organizations), as well as in the Sonderauftrag Linz (Special Commission Linz).

Gurlitt Trove

The “Gurlitt Provenance Research” project, which is part of the the German Lost Art Foundation, completed the review of 1,039 artworks. As of November 2021, 682 case reports are viewable on the German Lost Art Foundation website.
For the Claims Conference review of the Gurlitt Provenance Research results, please click here.

Federal Archives

Since 2014, the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) provides online access to a number of record groups via its data management platform Invenio. As of December 2020, 105,000 files were digitized with some 20 million images.

Of particular importance are records concerning the seizure, disposal and restitution of Nazi-Era looted cultural property. These archival holdings are located in record groups NS 8 (Kanzlei Rosenberg), NS 30 (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg), and B 323 (Treuhandverwaltung für Kulturgut bei der Oberfinanzdirektion München) and are online accessible.

The Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) also released an online Memorial Book entitled Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 – 1945, which holds more than 170,000 names. Information on the list of Jewish Residents in German Reich 1933-1945 is also available on Federal Archive’s website.

For an overview of archival compensation and restitution records in Germany’s federal archives, please see the report by the working group “Wiedergutmachung”.

Archivportal

The German Archivportal provides information on digital archival material and information on archival facilities in Germany. The portal allows to only search for digitized docments, encompassing some 1.378,219 digitized records.

The German Archivportal also provides online access to its “Compensation for National Socialist Injustice” collection with 17 participating archives throughout Germany.

Provenance database “ProvenienzdatenbankBund”

The database “Provenienzdatenbank.Bund” provides access to provenance research results of paintings, graphic works, sculptures, decorative arts and archaeological objects that were created before 1945 and are now owned by the Federal Republic of Germany. The majority of these works come from the former Central Collecting Point (CCP) in Munich. Overall, the database holds information on over 2,000 objects.

Landesarchiv Berlin

The Landesarchiv Berlin published an online restitution database that offers the possibility of researching the procedural files of the restitution offices of Berlin. The basis for the records in the online version is the alphabetical card index of aggrieved parties kept in the Wiedergutmachungsämter (restitution offices).

The Berlin State Archive, together with the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, provides access to the so-called Bergungsstelle consisting of 1,785 scanned documents. Between July 1945 and February 1946, the Bergungsstelle took over complete libraries and collections as well as scattered book holdings.

Brandenburgerisches Landeshauptarchiv

The Brandenburgerisches Landesarchiv is restoring, digitising and will make online available the approximately 42,000 personal files of the record group Rep. 36A Oberfinanzpräsident Berlin-Brandenburg (II) that document the work of the National Socialist Vermögensverwertungsstelle (Asset Realisation Office) and thus the systematic liquidation of assets of persons persecuted by the Nazis. The project is jointly funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg (MWFK).

Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte

The Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte reconstructed the stock in the so-called Führerbau in Munich as part of its project „Führerbau-Diebstahl 1945“  (Führerbau Theft 1945). The 2019 report, entitled “Reconstruction of the ‘Führerbau theft’ at the end of April 1945 and research on the whereabouts of the objects” [“Rekonstruktion des ‘Führerbau-Diebstahls’ Ende April 1945 und Recherchen zum Verbleib der Objekte Summarischer Projektbericht”] includes two appendices: 1. “List of objects that were apparently stolen from the ‘Führerbau’ at the end of April 1945 and are still missing or have resurfaced but have not been restituted”, and 2. “List of objects that were apparently stolen at the end of April 1945 stolen from the ‘Führerbau’ (or from the “Verwaltungsbau”), later found and brought to the CCP Munich”.  Three additional object listings are available, covering 1. objects that were not looted, but were located at the Führerbau in 1945 and later surfaced in the CCP Munich (“Aufstellung der Objekte, die offenbar Ende April 1945 im ‘Führerbau’ [bzw. im “Verwaltungsbau”] befanden, nicht gestohlen und später im den CCP München aufgefunden und registriert wurden.”), 2. objects that were located in the Führerbau in 1945 and were later restituted (“Aufstellung der Objekte, die offenbar Ende April 1945 im ‘Führerbau’ [bzw. im ‘Verwaltungsbau’] befanden, gestohlen und später restituiert oder abgegeben wurden.”), and 3. objects that were acquired as furnishing objects for the NSDAP and were registered in the Führerbau indexes, but in April 1945 were not located in either the Führerbau or the Verwaltungsbau (“Aufstellung der Objekte, die als Ausstattungsobjekte für die NSDAP erworben und in der Kartei ‘Ausstattung Führerbau’ erfasst wurden und sich Ende April 1945 nicht im ‘Führerbau’ oder im ‘Verwaltungsbau’ befanden.”).

Looted Cultural Assets Project

The provenance database of the Looted Cultural Assets project, is a joint project of the Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin, the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, the Stadtbibliothek Hannover, the Universitätsbibliothek JCS Frankfurt, the Stiftung Topographie des Terrors, the Universitätsbibliothek Potsdam, the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Bibliothek Albert Einstein, Heidelberg, the ZBW – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel, and the Badische Landesbibliothek. Former members included the Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum Library, the Badische Landesbibliothek (BLB) in Karlsruhe as well as the Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg. As of November 2021, the database includes more than 32,000 references to former owners of books and information on about 10,000 persons and institutions. 

Auction Houses

The database Galerie Heinemann online provides information regarding the art trade at Munich’s Galerie Heinemann between 1890 and 1939.

The Munich based Hugo Helbing annotated auction house catalogues, dating from 1885 until 1937, are available online. An online exhibition provides information on Hugo Helbing himself, his auction house and the research conducted by the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ZI).

Art Galleries

The project Alfred Flechtheim.com – Kunsthändler der Avantgarde created a virtual exhibition of more than 300 paintings in 14 cultural institutions in Germany and one in Switzerland. Alfred Flechtheim’s gallery was forecully liquidated in 1933.

The Julius Böhler art transaction database was made available in June 2021. Founded in 1880, the Munich art gallery Julius Böhler was one of the largest art dealerships in the German-speaking world in the first half of the 20th century.

Forschungsverbund Provenienzforschung Bayern (FPB)

The website of the Forschungsverbund Provenienzforschung Bayern (FPB) (Research Association for Provenance Research in Bavaria) provides restitution information for eight cultural institutions in addition to digital access directories. Specifically the website provides access to the access directories of Bavaria’s National Museum for the years 1930 to 1934, as well as for the years 1934 to1950 and to the donor books of Bavaria’s National Library, covering the years 1910 to 1942. These donor books represent the library’s few provenance research resources given the fact that the access books of the State Library were burned in World War II. Lastly, the website of the Forschungsverbund Provenienzforschung Bayern provides information on the access books of Bavaria’s State Galleries, covering the time-period for painting acquisitions for 1932 until 1939 and 1939 until 1953. The acquisition period for sculptures covers the time-period 1897 until 1951.

Claims Conference Database

A list of unresolved claims as of September 2006 for art and cultural property filed by the Claims Conference with the German restitution authorities regarding the former East Germany.

Research Projects

The organization Tracing the Past provides access to the 1939 German Minority Census Database. The organization is aiming to eventually release a database entitled Mapping the Lives – The interactive database with street maps of the persecuted in Europe 1933–1945.

In March 2017, the Mosse community of heirs together with the Freie Universität Berlin founded the Mosse Art Research Initiative (MARI).

In July 2020, the Annotated Online Edition of Three of Hans Posse’s Five Travel Diaries (1939-1942), a project by the German Lost Art Foundation and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, was published.

The project Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1937-1944 is a research platform for images of the Great German Art Exhibitions that took place in Munich between 1937 and 1944. The photographic documents provide information on art that was subsidised by the state during the Nazi regime. 

The ZADIK-Central Archive for German and International Art Market Studies is an academic institute of the University of Cologne and dedicated to archiving, processing, researching, and communicating the history, structures, contexts, and developments of international art systems. The archive comprises over 170 holdings of gallery owners, art dealers, auction houses, art critics, curators, specialist photographers, and other protagonists in the art market, focusing on the period from the early 20th century to the present.

Additional Resources

The Fachinformationsdienst Kunst – arthistoricum.net is a virtual library which provides access to literature and documents relating to art history.

The Heidelberg University Library digitized thousands of pages of Weltkunst, a journal of the German and international art market, covering the years 1931 until 1944, featuring auctions in Germany,  Switzerland and Austria.

The German Newspaper Portal (Deutsches Zeitungsportal) provides online access to historic newspapers from 1671 to 1952.

The Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin provides access to Berlin’s address, telephone and trade directories from 1707 until 1991/92.

The city of Munich published a Biographical Memorial Book of Munich Jews 1933-1945 which contains the most important life data of all women, men and children who lived in Munich between 1933 and 1945 and who were persecuted and murdered as Jews by the Nazi regime.

Hungary

Project Heritage Revealed produced a Catalog of Art Objects from Hungarian Private Collections.

The website Hungary on Trial – Herzog Family Collection provides information on the lawsuit by the Herzog heirs against Hungary, as well as an overview of artworks involved in the case.

The Zekelman Holocaust Center provides information on Hungarian documents that were microfilmed and edited by Clara Garbon-Radnoti. The 180 microfilm reels, donated to the Center by Prof. Randolph Braham, all relate to Jews in Hungary during World War II. These reels were created in the 1960s, from numerous Hungarian archives, and the microfilming project was funded by the World Federation of Hungarian Jews.

Israel

Hashava – The Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets – provides a list of assets in Israel. Please note that Hashava ceased to exist in December 2017, although the website remains active.

The Israel Museum provides access to three online listings: 1. paintings; 2. prints and drawings; and 3. Jewish Art; The lists contain cultural objects received by the museum’s predecessor from the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) and the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (JCR).

The National Library of Israel’s online catalog provides information on approximately 35,000 books that were looted during the Holocaust and subsequently sent to Israel. The books are searchable under the search term “Diaspora Treasures.”

Netherlands

The results of the research of the Origins Unknown Agency, are now part of NIOD’s Expert Centre Restitution.

The Netherlands Museum Association provides an online database entitled “Museum Acquisitions From 1933 Onwards” which lists objects with provenance gaps held at Dutch museums.  

From 2009 until 2018, Dutch museums carried out provenance research in 163 museums for the project ‘Museum Acquisitions from 1933‘. These research results, as well as those of an earlier project, ‘Museum Acquisitions 1940-1948,’ are accessible on the WW2 portal.

NIOD (Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies) provides online access to its ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) collection, covering the years 1942-1943. The files, which were digitized with the support of the Claims Conference, document the emptying of houses abandoned by Jews, the inventories which were drawn up of the household effects and their transport to Germany.

The Dutch Network War Collections website, Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen (NOB), brings together the archival records of 450 organizations that document the Holocaust in the Netherlands. The online resource provides information on specific topics but also allows to search for individuals. NOB is supported by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and by the Vfonds and is facilitated by the NIOD.

Jacques Goudstikker:
The Goudstikker Art Research Project aims to reconstruct the collection of the art collector and art dealer Jacques Goudstikker at the time of the art theft in 1940. The missing artworks are lised on lostart.de.

The Netherlands Institute for Art History provides information on the Goudstikker-Miedl archive which comprises of over 1,500 index cards. These index cards originally belonged to Jacques Goudstikker but in September 1940 were acquired by banker Alois Miedl.

The RKD, Netherlands Institute for Art History, provides access to its collection “Archief Kunsthandel Goudstikker.”

Poland

The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland launched a website of Poland’s wartime losses, entitled “The Division for Looted Art”.

The Jewish Historical Institute provides partial online access to its archive.

The Central Judaica Database of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews created a database of Judaica in Polish museums, archives and private collections. The first stage of the project has consisted in digitizing selected artifacts from the collections of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Jewish Historical Institute.

Russian Federation

Project Heritage Revealed

The Project “Heritage Revealed” created two catalogs: 1. Catalogue of Manuscripts and Archival Materials of Juedisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau Held in Russian Depositories; and 2. Manuscripts and Archival Documents of the Vienna Jewish Community held in Russian Collections.

CULTURAL VALUES –THE VICTIMS OF THE WAR: HTTP://WWW.LOSTART.RU

The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation on its website entitled “Cultural Values-Victims of War” in a section on “Moved Cultural Values” has published a partial list of paintings, drawings, graphics, archaeological objects, musical instruments and other categories of objects that were brought into Russia by the Soviet Trophy Brigades at the end of World War II.

So far, objects listed have overwhelmingly been objects taken from museums and repositories in Germany and other states that were enemies of the Soviet Union during the war, which under Russian legislation are not subject to restitution. So far as is known, specialists in Germany trying to track what was taken from the various German museums after the war that still is in Moscow and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union are almost the only ones outside of Russia following the listings. Since much of what the Soviet Trophy Brigades took included many objects looted by the Nazis and their allies from Jews and others of their victims, it is not impossible, however, that some such objects may be in the listings, although in all likelihood only by accident. Although parts of the website are in German, English, and French, the catalog of the objects is exclusively in Russian. To make the listing better known to non-Russian speakers, the Claims Conference/WJRO presents on its website a translation into English by Yagna Yass-Alston of all the listings of painting as well as those graphics that are by known artists:

  1. http://lostart.ru/ru/ – paintings 2016
  2. http://lostart.ru/ru/ – paintings 2018
  3. http://lostart.ru/ru/ – works on paper 2016

Switzerland

The Federal Office for Culture provides various provenance research reports, among them a report from December 2020 entitled “Aktualisierung des Berichts des Bundesamtes für Kultur «Kulturgüter im Eigentum der Eidgenossenschaft: Untersuchung zum Zeitraum 1933 bis 1945“. The website also offers an overview of cultural institutions in Switzerland that conduct provenance research.

The Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection provides online access to its collection, which includes provenance research.

The “Art Imports” database of the Righini-Fries Foundation provides information on the import of works of art into Switzerland in the period 1921-1925, with a focus on 1935-1937. The database is based on Sigismund Righini’s (1870-1937) decisions which works of art could be imported into Switzerland and which could not. In those years, Sigismund Righini (1870-1937) worked for the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) as an expert on art imports.

Ukraine

The Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine (TsDAVO) provides access to its ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) collection.

United Kingdom

The Collections Trust website provides information on provenance research and contact information for national museums and galleries as well as for non-national museums.

The National Archives of the United Kingdom holds records on the systematic looting of works of art and cultural property throughout Europe by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. The records have been identified, described and introduced by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe in partnership with The National Archives.

United States of America

Between 2003 and 2024, the AAM (American Association of Museums) provided access to the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal, a central registry of objects in U.S. museums that could have changed hands in Europe during the Nazi era, 1933-1945. Some information is still available on the NEPIP archive.

The Monuments Men Foundation For The Preservation of Art archive holds 6,850 archival documents, including letters, diaries and nearly 115,000 digital assets, as well as oral histories with some members of the Monuments Men.

The Library of Congress provides online access to the Katalog der Privat-Gallerie Adolf Hitlers, an album of 74 reproductions of paintings and two tapestries in Adolf Hitler’s private art collection including portraits of his family.

Image Databases

The Witt Library of the Courtauld Gallery provides access to over two million reproductions of works by 70,000 artists.

The Frick Digital Collections provide online access to photoarchive images and documentation, book materials, Frick Collection images, and archival documents.

The Fondazione Federico Zeri (University of Bologna) provides online access to a photo library consisting of over 290,000 photographs of works of art and monuments.

The Picture Archive Marburg (Bildindex. Der Kunst & Architektur) is an online database combining the image and data collection on art and architecture of 80 cultural and scientific institutions – museums, offices for the preservation of historical monuments, libraries, universities and research institutes.

The RKD of the Netherlands Institute for Art History provides access to an image database.

The Kress Collection Digital Archive provides access to a collection of more than 3,000 works of European art amassed by Samuel H. Kress and his foundation, and then donated to over 95 art and educational institutions throughout the United States.

ArtUK provides access to over 280,000 works of art from the UK’s national collection.

The Frederikshavn Art Museum and the Exlibris Collection provide access to an online bookplate image database. The database currently holds about 450.000 total bookplates.

Publication Platforms

Perspectivia.net, a publication platform of the Max Weber Foundation, provides free access to publications by the institutes and their cooperation partners. 

The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books and more.

The digital library jstor.org provides online access to journals, books, images and primary sources.

Zeitgeschichte Open (Open-Access-Plattform des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte), a plattform by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History and the Bavarian State Library, provides access to online books and articles.

Holocaust Research Databases

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museums’ database Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names holds millions of names of individuals persecuted under the Nazi regime.

Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names contains information on four million eight hundred thousand Jews victims murdered during the Holoaust.

The Arolson Archive plans to provide access to its 30 million documents relating to victims and survivors of National Socialism. A large portion of these 30 million documents are already online accessible.

The JewishGen Holocaust database provides access to a collection of databases with information on Holocaust survivors and victims. The database holds about 3,69 million records.

The Ancestry database Jewish records – Holocaust provides access to various collections on Holocaust surivors and victims.

The Center for Jewish History provides access to digitized records in its collection, comprised of holdings in the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Yeshiva University Museum, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

In 2020, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) launched a project on “Monitoring Access to Holocaust Collections Project,” which includes records on the looting of cultural and religious property.

Judaica Database

The JudaicaIndex provides online access to more than 200 Jewish ritual objects, searchable in 15 languages by name or keyword. Each record includes a definition, images and a bibliography. The index is maintained by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.

The Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew Univesity in Jerusalem provides online access to an Index of Jewish Art.

Online Exhibitions

In November 2023, the Leo Baeck Institutes in Jerusalem and London launched an innovative online exhibition project entitled Library of Lost Books. The project aims to commemorate and educate about the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, Berlin (Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1872–1942) that was dedicated to the study of Jewish history and culture and to rabbinical studies in Liberal Judaism. The Hochschule’s library was ultimately looted by the Nazis and dispersed across the world.

Vienna’s Volkskundemuseum initiated a virtual gallery on provenance research: A Museum – An Object – A Story, a preliminary project for which the museum collected contributions from all federal institutions with restitution obligations. The virtual gallery and additional information is online available.

Musical Instruments

The organization “Looted Music-Tracing Looted Instruments and Musica Material” aims to establish an internet platform that centralizes information on confiscated instruments in all occupied countries, instruments registered as lost, a comprehensive list of demands for restitution, instruments put up for forced sale under anti-Semitic laws, instruments sold on by the State, and instruments restored to their owners.

last updated September 2024