The Mainz library holdings from Kunsthistorische Forschungsstätte Paris (KHF) (1942-1944). Clarification of the provenance and function of the library in the context of organised art theft resulting from persecution.

The project is based on a book collection of 3,073 German and French-language scholarly publications and auction catalogues that came to Mainz in the course of the re-founding of Johannes Gutenberg University in 1946. It is a partial collection from the library of the former Kunsthistorische Forschungsstätte Paris (KHF). The KHF was a research centre for art historians that existed from 1942 to 1944 and fell under the responsibility of the German Institute in Paris.

A preliminary project previously clarified that the majority of the auction catalogues were donated to the KHF on a voluntary basis, while the German-language books were “procured” in Germany by Prof. Dr. Alfred Stange, professor at the Art History Institute in Bonn. These latter items are suspected of being cultural property confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution: this was to be investigated. The publications of the French department of the KHF were purchased by Dr. Hermann Bunjes in Paris between 1942 and 1944. Although various receipts suggest that these were ostensibly legal book purchases, the exact circumstances were to be investigated in more detail, since Bunjes’ activities in connection with Kunstschutz (“art protection”) and his activities on the art market are well known.

Objectives:

The aim of the project was therefore to systematically analyse the provenance of the individual titles and enter problematic provenances in the Lost Art database. In addition, the special book collection in Mainz University Library’s online catalogue is to be given a key of its own to enable users to search for specific titles.

Furthermore, the aim was to clarify the function of the KHF library in the context of organised, persecution-related art theft in Paris during the German occupation, determining whether, for example, the extensive inventory of auction catalogues resulted from Hermann Bunjes’ efforts to monitor auctions in Paris in the period from 1942 to 1944 and whether older catalogues were used to check changes in prices. Efforts to reopen the Hôtel Drouot auction house and Galerie George Petit are also directly related to the documented exchange between Hermann Bunjes and various cultural and political actors in the Rhineland. As such, one of the aims of the project on the book collection in Mainz was also to provide information on the networking activities and acquisition policy pursued by Rhineland museums in Paris between 1942 and 1944.

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