Skip to Main Content

Provenance Research at the Clark Library: Records of lost works

Research guide to provenance resources at the Clark library, with emphasis on the World War II era.

Gustav Klimt, Garden Path with Chickens

Among many paintings from the Erich Lederer collection, Garden Path with Chickens (1917) was removed to the Schloss Immendorf in Lower Austria for safekeeping during World War II. When the castle was burned by retreating SS troops in 1945, the painting was destroyed.

Finding lost works from specific countries and collections

The resources listed below provide photographs and other documentation on works of art reported missing or stolen from public and private collections during World War II.

Click the "Internet Resources" tab for a rich array of further online sources on stolen and looted art.

 

LootedArt.com

The central registry of information on cultural property looted 1933-45.  In addition to many useful links and breaking news of cases involving looted art, LootedArt contains two databases:

  • The Information Database contains information and documentation from forty-nine countries, including laws and policies, reports and publications, archival records and resources, current cases and relevant websites.
  • The Object Database contains details of over 25,000 objects of all kinds – paintings, drawings, antiquities, Judaica, etc – looted, missing and/or identified from over fifteen countries.

 

Austria

Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art, Archives and Other Material in Enemy Hands. Works of Art in Austria (British zone of occupation): Losses and Survivals in the War.  London:  H. M. Stationery Office, 1946.
Stacks  N9165 A88 G7

 

Belgium

Office de récupération économique.  Répertoire d'Oeuvres d'Art Dont la Belgique a été Spoliée Durant la Guerre 1939-1945. Brussels:  Royaume de Belgique, 1948.
Stacks  N9165 B4 B4

 

 Missing Art Works of Belgium.  Bruxelles:  Ministère des affaires économiques, 1994.
Stacks  N9165 B4 B3

 

France

Répertoire des biens spoliés en France durant la guerre, 1939-1945… List of property removed from France during the war 1939-1945. Tome II: Tableaus, tapisseries et sculptures.  Berlin:  Impr. Nationale, 1947.
Rare Book Room N9165 F7 G4  
Click here for the online version .

 

Schloss Collection, Non-Restituted Works Looted 1943-1998.

 Published by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this website lists over one hundred works still missing from the collection of Adolphe Schloss as of July 1, 1997. Includes images, descriptive information, and cross-references to Répertoire de Biens Spoliés.

 

Germany

Bernhard, Marianne. Verlorene Werke der Malerei in Deutschland in der Zeit von 1939 bis 1945: Zerstörte und Verschollene Gemälde aus Museen und Galerien.  Munich:  Ackermanns, 1965.
Stacks  N9165 G4 B47

 

Hungary

Laszlo Mravik. The ‘Sacco di Budapest’ and Depredation of Hungary, 1938-1949: Works of Art Missing from Hungary as a Result of the Second World War.  Budapest:  Hungarian National Gallery, 1998.
Stacks  N9165 H8 M73

 

Italy

Works of Art in Italy: Losses and Survivals in the War. Compiled from War Office Reports by the British Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art, Archives, and Other Material in Enemy Hands. London:  H. M. Stationery Office, 1945-46.
Stacks  N9165 I8 G7

 

Morozzi, Luisa. Treasures Untraced: An Inventory of the Italian Art Treasures Lost during the Second World War.  Rome:  Instituto poligrafico e zecca dello stato, 1995.
Stacks  N9165 I8 063 E

 

Netherlands

Venema, Adriaan.  Kunsthandel in Nederland, 1940-1945. Amsterdam:  Arbeiderspers, 1986.
Stacks  N8620 V46

 

Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen Koenigs Collection.  Missing Old Master Drawings from the Franz Koenigs Collection Claimed by the State of The Netherlands. The Hague:  Netherlands Office for Fine Arts, 1989.
Stacks  N2505 A9 K6 1989