Sources on the Displacement of Nazi-looted Cultural Property from the Postwar Era (from 1945)

• B 323 Treuhandverwaltung von Kulturgut (Trust Administration for Cultural Assets)

The documents in this record group, which is central to provenance research, follows the activities of the Trust Administration of Cultural Property at the Foreign Office (TVK) and its functional predecessors. It includes the recording of works of art found in the possession of the Reich at the end of World War II, initially by the US Allies in Central Collecting Points (inventory, photocopying and, as far as possible, provenance documentation and restitution) in documents, photo collections and card files.

The TVK, established in 1951 as a special department, continued to investigate and document the provenance of the works until 1962. Very few documents in the record groupwere created after 1962.

Apart from the documentation of the US Allies and the TVK, the record groupconsists largely of reproduced documents of various provenance (Reich Chancellery, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, representative and advisor for the Linz Special Commission, Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, MFA&A Section of the American Military Government, business records from art dealers.

The entire collection is extremely useful for provenance research because it contains information on the acquisition and confiscation of art objects as well as clues for identifying artworks and their rightful owners. The image collection (B 323 Bild) corresponds to the document collection B 323.

When conducting your research, please make use of the very detailed information on record group B 323 provided in invenio.

Some of this information has been summarised for you below:

• In the documentation, photo collections and card files created at the Central Collecting Points, which do not have a fundamentally uniform order, three record complexes can be distinguished, some of which are structurally damaged and incomplete:

1. Files, card files and photographic documentation (5,000 images) from the Monuments Fine Arts and Archives Restitution Branch (MFA&A, OMGUS) on the establishment of the CCP Munich and the work of the Allied art protection authorities (1945-1949).

2. A collection of documents compiled by the Central Collecting Point (CCP) Munich on the acquisition, whereabouts and war-related relocation of art and cultural assets from the activities of authorities, Nazi agencies and a group of commissioned individuals from the period 1937-1945. It contains evidence, partly in the form of catalogues, of the Göring Collection (1933-1945, 30), the Linz Special Commission (1938-1945, 84), the Bormann Collection (1936-1961, 4) and private collections confiscated by Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in France, Belgium and Russia (1935-1945, 77).

3. Documents and files of the trust administrations pertaining to their restitution efforts (1950-1972). It is not always possible to link the various files with the CCP material collections and the files of the trust administration.

• Relatively few archive numbers are organised by subject or artist. However, a targeted search for individual works of art or artists in invenio is to a certain extent possible. For example:

B 323/14 - 15 Verwaltung Obersalzberg. (Obersalzberg Adminstration).
Contains photographs of the pictures acquired by Bormann.

B 323/86 - 88
Contains a list of paintings from the Munich “Führerbau” (“new version”) and an addendum sorted by artist names.

B 323/184 - 185
Contains information on the plundering of the art objects in the “Führerbau” in Munich.  

B 323/266 - 292
Contains inventory and box lists of the collections confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR).  

B 323/316 - 320
Contains a catalogue of the “Göring Collection”.  

B 323/505 - 507
Contains an alphabetical list of all the paintings, drawings and miniatures restituted between 1945 und 1962.

B 323/517

Documents the administration of the holdings for the “Deutsche Schloss Posen” by the Trust Administration (includes, among other things, an inventory by artist with details of origin and restitution).

B 323/583

Documents the acquisitions by Reichsleiter Martin Bormann for the “Sonderauftrag Linz” and the “Schloss Posen” and contains certified invoice copies and transcripts from the years 1940-1944.

B 323/732

Alphabetical list of items handed over to the Jewish Restitution Successor Organisation (JRSO), sorted by art genre.

B 323/738 - 752

Contains a list sorted by storage location. Items received at the Central Collecting Point are registered according to storage location and depot.

B 323/786 - 1102

Contains a “Fotothek” of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, which corresponds to the inventory and box lists and is sorted by collection (alphabetically by ERR signature). Some of the photographs have handwritten or typewritten notes on the back.

• The inventory includes various card files. For example, when the artworks arrived at the Central Collecting Point, the MFA&A Service created various card file systems that were useful for provenance research and used to inventory the individual objects:

B 323/604 - 646 “Kontrollnummernkartei” (“Eingangskartei” sorted by Munich number)

The approximately 43,000 German file cards are sorted by receipt numbers (including Linz or other inventory numbers) with fields for room, type of object, owner, date of receipt, weather, condition, and comments. Additional information such as depot and depot number is also available. The information is mostly summary in nature. It refers primarily to the respective transport containers and the number of items contained therein, rather than to specific works of art.

B 323/647 - 694 “Restitutionskartei” (sorted by Munich number)

The information in this card file is more comprehensive and detailed than that in the so-called “Eingangskartei”. The “Restitutionskartei” originally set up by the CCP Munich was dissolved on the instructions of then director Stefan P. Munsing and used for the so-called “Münchner Reihe” (card file sorted by Munich numbers from 1 to 50,000), which was located in Wiesbaden (Dr Bernhard Hoffmann to Theodore A. Heinrich, 30 Sept. 1950 in: B 323/328).

B 323/695 - 729 “Restitutionskartei” (sorted by owner)

Approximately 70,000 file cards. These can be searched by country and individual owner, but mostly only for very extensive art collections, such as those of Baron Rothschild. These file cards also have a Munich number, allowing the corresponding photo or other file cards from the collection to be found as well. These file cards cannot be used to search for artists.

B 323/763 - 769 “Alte Ministerpräsidentenkartei”

The card file, containing roughly 10,000 file cards, was created by the MFA & A Section and handed over to the Bavarian Prime Minister in June 1949. A file card was created for each work of art and used to describe the individual object in terms of type and condition, to track its state of preservation upon receipt, and to document its origin and history, as well as previous or potential owners, and further locations. They also contain information regarding storage and general handling (including restoration). The individual file cards refer to the Munich number and the number assigned at the salvage sites, thus providing a certain degree of concordance. Some of the file cards also contain photos. The card file was last updated on 1 January 1962.

B 323/602 - 603 “Ministerpräsidentenkartei”

The approximately 2,500 file cards were handed over to the Bavarian Minister President in June 1949 as the trustee of the objects from the CCP Munich that could not yet be restituted. The card file is arranged according to Munich numbers.

B 323/226 “Weiße Kartei”

The file lists purchases made by the Haberstock Gallery, Berlin, for the “Sonderauftrag Linz,” the Reich Chancellery, and the “Göring Collection.” It names the artist and title of the painting and contains information on the acquisition and resale. The Linz and Munich numbers, restitution (date and place), and references to the so-called Linz film are noted.

B 323/98 “Kleine Kartei”

The German file cards document the origin, seller/dealer, and purchase prices.

The library of the “Linz Special Commission” and the so-called “Dresden Catalogue” were important tools used by the Allies to record the artworks. These catalogues of index cards and photographs contain a list of the art holdings for the “Führer Museum” that Hitler planned to establish in Linz. They also contained the detailed ERR lists for the works that the ERR had processed at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.

The numbers of these files are not recorded individually in invenio, but rather in blocks. This means that a keyword search using the entry number of an artwork in the CCP may not return any results. It is necessary to conduct a systematic search using the navigation search for the respective CCP. In addition, when performing a keyword search in invenio, it is advisable to use “placeholder left” and “placeholder right.” This allows you to find search terms that have been placed in brackets or quotation marks. For example, (Galerie Almas), “Sonderauftrag Linz,” (“Claims”), etc. It is not always effective to enter directly into the keyword search known information (such as the Munich, Wiesbaden, or Linz number, a storage location, title, artist name, dealer name, owner name, art collector or art collection name, applicant or heir name, etc.). It may be better to search for files that are related to the known information in a broader context (e.g., the broader search term “jüdische Eigentümer”).

Please also note that the file cards in invenio are not indexed by content. A detailed keyword search for specific numbers and other information contained on the respective file card, such as artists and previous owners, can be done using the database of the Central Collecting Point Munich.

• B 401 Bundesamt für äußere Restitutionen (Federal Office for Foreign Restitutions)  

Task

The task of the Federal Office for Foreign Restitutions (BAR), established in 1955 on the basis of the fifth section of the so-called Transition Agreement, was and is “to search for jewellery, silverware, and antique furniture [...] as well as cultural assets, to record and restitute them [...] if these objects and cultural assets were obtained during the occupation of an area by the troops or authorities of Germany or its allies or by their individual members (with or without orders) by coercion (with or without the use of force), by theft, requisition, or other forms of forced deprivation of ownership and removed from this area (Art. 1).” The BAR also assumed the task of processing restitution claims that were still pending with the occupying powers when the Transfer Agreement came into force. The aim was to complete the restitution process initiated by the Allies. Foreign restitutions are part of international law: it was thus the state governments, not private individuals, who could submit claims and receive restitutions from the BAR. These governments generally collected claims from private individuals, public institutions (such as museums), and local authorities (usually cities) in advance of the claim and submitted them to the BAR in a bundled form.

Volume

The BAR documents stored at the Federal Archives in Koblenz comprise 88 microfilms and 738 storage units (mostly file folders), which are classified into three subsections and reflect the entire range of the BAR’s activities. The third section, which is useful for provenance research and has been fully digitised, comprises investigations and decisions on restitution claims (claims for restitution mainly of jewellery, silverware, antique furniture, and cultural property). The retention periods for most of these documents have expired, meaning that the cataloguing information for the documents is freely accessible via invenio.

Arrangement

To provide a better overview, the claims in invenio are sorted according to the countries from which they originate. As a rule, the BAR processed all restitution claims of a person entitled to restitution (or their legal successor) in a single procedure. In isolated cases, however, it created separate files, depending on the type of object, type of confiscation, investigation results, or formal requirements. Conversely, it could also combine the claims of different persons or institutions (such as claims from public museums) into a single file. For each country, the BAR also conducted correspondence with the respective foreign missions and the Trust Administration of Cultural Property (TVK) in Munich in cross-case files, collected materials on specific regulations, looting organisations, or confiscation procedures, and conducted investigations (in particular, obtaining information from former participants). Such cross-case files can be found under a separate heading in the classification.

Research notes

As part of the cataloguing process, the person entitled to restitution, the file number, and the items to be restituted were recorded for each restitution claim, provided this information was available in the file. The information on individuals includes names and biographical data. In cases of unambiguous identification, links were provided to the Authority File GND and/or to entries in the provenance research databases Proveana and Lost Art, where available. It should be noted, however, that the data on individuals is often incomplete. In the case of natural persons, for example, biographical data is often missing, including in some cases the first name.

If the objects are works of art (mostly paintings), they were recorded individually whenever possible, stating the author and the title or description of the work, and indicating whether the file contained illustrations. For all other items, predetermined summary terms are used (e.g., “furnishings,” “library,” “precious metal,” “jewellery,” etc.).

The information pertaining to the artworks is recorded as it appears in the files. Most claims are in German, occasionally in French, depending on the country of origin. This should be taken into account when searching for artist names or work titles, and it should be noted that many works do not have a fixed title, but rather a (more or less detailed) description. The information on the objects has not been checked from an art-historical perspective – only obvious errors (such as transcription errors) have been corrected. Despite these limitations, different search approaches are possible depending on the user’s interests: by file number, by a person’s name, and by the objects to be restituted. Invenio offers specific masks for the respective information. Individuals can be searched for under the “Namensuche” (name search) tab. In the “Erweiterte Suche” (advanced search) section, file numbers can be found in the “Aktenzeichen/Registriernr.” (file no./registration no.) field, and objects in the “Zusatzfelder suchen” “search additional fields” field. Select the “Antrags-/Verfahrensgegenstand” (claim/procedure) option there.

The file numbers for cases involving restitution consist of several parts and always follow the same pattern. They begin with the abbreviation of the country from which the claim originated (e.g., B for “Belgien (Belgium), Oe for “Oesterreich” (Austria), Cs for Tschechoslowakei (Czechoslovakia). This is usually followed by either a Roman numeral “I,” which identifies cross-case procedures (investigations, collection of materials, general correspondence), or an “R” for restitution claims. These are then supplemented by a sequential number. The suffix “(K)” marks cases involving art and cultural property; cases without this suffix usually concern failed restitution of economic goods.

Examples: F R 61 (K) is a French claim for the restitution of cultural property; It R 55 is an Italian compensation claim for a failed restitution; file Cs I (K) contains general correspondence and investigations of Czechoslovak claims for restitution of cultural property.

If a search for a restitution claim is unsuccessful, it may still be worthwhile to search the individual inquiries (item 1.4 “Inquiries” in the classification). Please note that these files are not indexed by name.

The Federal Archives holds 885 storage units from the personal paper collection of Cornelius Gurlitt (1932-2014), son of the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, who also worked for Adolf Hitler during the Nazi era. The estate contains documents from the Nazi era that are primarily of a business nature, books, exhibition catalogues, and other printed material, as well as an extensive collection of photographs.

• N 1826 Nachlass Gurlitt( (Gurlitt personal paper collection)

N 1826/161-162 contains information about Hildebrand Gurlitt’s professional activities, particularly at the Kunstkabinett Gurlitt, as director of the König-Albert-Museum in Zwickau, the Kunstverein in Hamburg, and as an art dealer in Nazi Germany.

N 1826/172, N 1826/175-184 contain mainly business correspondence from Hildebrand and Helene Gurlitt.

N 1826/48 contains documents relating to the Linz Special Commission, in particular the purchase of works of art, including purchase and payment confirmations, and correspondence with Prof. Dr. Hermann Voss, Theo Hermsen, and lawyer Dr. Walter Schmidt.

N 1826/41, N 1826/44-53, N 1826/73, N 1826/159-160 contain information and lists of art objects, some of which are sorted alphabetically by artist name, as well as purchases and sales.

N 1826/56-58 contains notebooks, pocket calendars, and address books from 1946 to 1959.

N 1826/60-64 contains documents relating to justification and self-exoneration, including a series of documents from the Hildebrand Gurlitt denazification proceedings.

N 1826/217-266, N 1826/268-885 The extensive book collection, including numerous exhibition and auction catalogues, often contains annotations, notes, comments, and sometimes prices for works of art.

Please note that special terms of use apply to this collection:

The Gurlitt estate is made available for use in accordance with the Federal Archives Act, analogous to documents of state origin. Access to the digitised versions of some files is also governed by this act. Some of the available digital copies can be viewed online, while others are only accessible in the reading rooms of the Federal Archives after the user has signed a request for use form and the associated Special Declaration of Commitment (PDF, 589 KB, file is not barrier-free / low barrier. When used by third parties (not employees of KunstMuseumBern -KMB), § 4 (1) of the supplementary agreement regarding “rights of use to the materials” of August/September 2020 stipulates that KMB must be named as the donor of the written estate and Cornelius Gurlitt as the author, insofar as he was the author. In accordance with § 1 (1) of the supplementary agreement, the KMB holds all copyrights to the documents in the written estate, insofar as Cornelius Gurlitt was their author.

The Federal Archives has documentary and feature films that address the handling of cultural property, as well as feature films that are themselves considered cultural property.

• Ufa-Wochenschau (Originaltitel) Nr. 118 production year: 1958
  Country: Federal Republic of Germany produced by Deutsche Wochenschau GmbH Filmwerk ID 31129
  Shows painting auction in Amsterdam: Auctioneer selling paintings from the famous Regnault Collection. Original sound.