Accessible Data for improved Provenance Research

Proveana is the research database at the German Lost Art Foundation. Notably, it displays the results of research projects that were funded by the Foundation. The objective is to support provenance research through documenting historical information, thereby making it more transparent and contributing to the solution of unresolved cases. Proveana comprises four research areas: cultural property expropriated as a result of (Nazi) persecution (Nazi-looted art), cul­tur­al prop­er­ty dis­placed as a re­sult of war (wartime losses), expropriation of cultural property in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR, as well as cultural goods and collections from colonial contexts. The database allows searches for people, corporations, events, collections, provenance information, objects and further documentary sources. Searches in Proveana also include the contents of the Lost Art database, as well as links to further databases. Proveana provides assistance for those whose cultural assets were seized, for their descendants, for scholars, for everybody involved in the trade with cultural goods, for the media, and for policy-makers.

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Topics presented

Forschungskontext
Cultural goods confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution
Cultural goods displaced as a result of war
Confiscation of cultural goods in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR
Cultural goods and collections from colonial contexts

Art and Artifacts Auctions

The list displayed below contains all art and culture auctions recorded in Proveana.
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Forschungskontext
Cultural goods confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution

Gurlitt Art Trove

Refers to the 1,566 masterpieces and materials discovered between 2012 and 2014 at the properties of Cornelius Gurlitt (1932–2014), son of the art historian and Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt (1896–1956).
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Forschungskontext
Cultural goods confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution

Jewish Collectors

From 1933, Jewish art collectors were targeted victims of Nazi persecution and confiscation, with the aim of “utilizing” their art collections.
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Forschungskontext
Cultural goods confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution

Administrative Offices and Persons in Charge

The National Socialist regime organized the looting of cultural goods in a systematic way. For this purpose, numerous administrative offices were set up and functionaries given the appropriate powers.
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Forschungskontext
Cultural goods displaced as a result of war

Catalogs of Wartime Losses

The following list is a compilation of catalogs published by museums, libraries, and public authorities to make their cultural losses as a result of the Second World War visible.
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Insights into selected research projects

Investigation of the Provenance of Two Works from the Lemmers-Danforth Collection: Table Clock in the Form of an Elephant, Game Table of Diane de Portiers

The "Diane de Poitiers gaming table" and a figural clock pose a mystery: The clock was sold in the late 1930s by the Rothschild/Goldschmidt-Rothschild family, as was probably the table. After the war, a collector acquired the objects; today they are in the Städtische Museen Wetzlar, which have not yet been able to clarify all the questions.

Search for Nazi-confiscated property in the holdings of Stadtbibliothek Bautzen (Bautzen city library), old stock/regional studies in the receipt period 1933–1945

The municipal library of Bautzen has systematically examined more than 10,000 books to determine whether they came into its possession illegally during the National Socialist era. In the course of the research, the book collection of the Jewish entrepreneurial family Edith and Georg Tietz was also identified in the holdings.