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Museum Websites and Restitution: Rediscovering Holocaust-Era Objects in the Digital Age

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Museum Websites and Restitution: Rediscovering Holocaust-Era Objects in the Digital Age Sotheby's Institute of Art Digital Commons @ SIA MA Theses Student Scholarship and Creative Work 2019 Museum Websites and Restitution: Rediscovering Holocaust-Era Objects in the Digital Age Gabriella Bloom Sotheby's Institute of Art Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/stu_theses Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons, and the Museum Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bloom, Gabriella, "Museum Websites and Restitution: Rediscovering Holocaust-Era Objects in the Digital Age" (2019). MA Theses. 19. https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/stu_theses/19 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship and Creative Work at Digital Commons @ SIA. It has been accepted for inclusion in MA Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ SIA. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Museum Websites and Restitution: Rediscovering Holocaust-Era Objects in the Digital Age by Gabriella Bloom A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Art Business Sotheby’s Institute of Art 2019 15,880 words Abstract Under the Third Reich, Europe experienced one of the most far-reaching examples of plunder of cultural property in modern history. While the Allies succeeded in returning many objects and artworks towards the end of the war and initially following it, many objects remained missing and hidden. The late 1990s led to a resurgence of interest in Holocaust-Era looting, resulting in a rise of cases and litigation over previously plundered objects. As many looted artworks materialized in United States museums, museums began further researching their collections’ provenance and inputting this information online. Today, most major museums have a section of their website dedicated to World War II-Era objects that contain gaps in provenance from any time between 1933 – 1945. This thesis examines the link between Holocaust-Era restitution and the Internet, exploring how museum websites and their online provenance programs can be used to promote discovery of objects that may have been plundered during World War II. Using five museums as case studies, it will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each institution’s online provenance features, and how these programs could be improved to aid in future discoveries. It will also explore several instances in which a museum website has proved beneficial in the discovery of information about a Holocaust- Era artwork. Through case studies and examining existing lost art databases, this thesis posits that more standardized museum provenance projects and a centralized database would be beneficial in facilitating future resolutions of Holocaust-Era objects. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: History of Looting During World War II 4 CHAPTER 2: The Revival of Interest in Holocaust-Era Looting: 14 New Scholarship, Policies, and Practices CHAPTER 3: Museums in the Digital Age 26 CHAPTER 4: Museum Website Surveys 38 4.1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art 39 4.2. J. Paul Getty Museum 42 4.3. The Museum of Modern Art 46 4.4. National Gallery of Art 48 4.5. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 52 CONCLUSION 55 ILLUSTRATIONS 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY 66 APPENDIX Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art 75 Terezín Declaration: Excerpt on Nazi Confiscated and Looted Art 77 Report of the AAMD Task Force on the Spoilation of Art during the 78 Nazi/World War II Era (1933-1945) AAM Unlawful Appropriation of Objects during the Nazi Era 83 ii List of Illustrations Fig. 1. Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890-1918), Portrait of Wally Neuzil, 1912, oil on wood, w 398 x h 320 cm (Without Frame), Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 453, Signed and dated below left: EGON SCHIELE 1912 Fig. 2. Virgin and Child, 15th century, Polish, Oil and tempera on panel, 43.8 x 34.3 cm (17 1/4 x 13 1/2 in.), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, M. Theresa B. Hopkins Fund, 1970.77, deaccessioned 2004 Fig. 3. Eglon van der Neer (Dutch, 1634–1703), Portrait of a Man and Woman in an Interior, 1665–1667, Oil on panel, 73.9 x 67.6 cm (29 1/8 x 26 5/8 in.), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Seth K. Sweetser Fund, 41.935 Fig. 4. Paul Gaugin (French, 1848-1903), Street in Tahiti, 1891, Oil on canvas, 45 1/2 x 34 7/8 in. (115.5 x 88.5 cm), Toledo Museum of Art, Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey 1939.82 Fig. 5. Claude Lorrain (French, ca. 1604-1682), Battle on a Bridge, 1655, Oil on canvas, Unframed: 41 × 55 in. (104.14 × 139.7 cm), Framed: 51 1/2 × 65 in. (130.81 × 165.1 cm), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 60.37 Fig. 6. Tagged categories on object page of Paul Signac, Lighthouse at Groix, 1925, Oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art website Fig. 7. Example of provenance data, J. Paul Getty Museum website Fig. 8. Filters on Getty works with catalogued provenance gaps Fig. 9. Available filters for paintings collection search on J. Paul Getty Museum website Fig. 10. MoMA’s Provenance Research Project Excel spreadsheet Fig. 11. Anthonie van Borssom (Dutch 1629/1630-1677), River Scene with Windmill and Boats, Evening, c. 1645, Oil on panel, 18.42 x 26.67 cm (7 ¼ x 10 ½ in), National Gallery of Art, Gift of Robert H. and Clarice Smith, 2012.99.1 Fig. 12. Henri Met De Bles (Flemish, about 1480-after 1550), LandsCape with Burning City, About 1500, Oil on panel, 13.0 x 25.7 cm (5 1/8 x 10 1/8 in), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Seth K. Sweetser Fund, 46.1143 Fig. 13. Attributed to: Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish (active in Italy) 1591-1652), Saint Andrew, 1641, Oil on canvas, 69.9 x 55.9 cm (27 ½ x 22 in.), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Andree B. Stearns, 1991.776 Fig. 14. Barent Avercamp (Dutch, 1612 or 1613-1679), Skating on a Frozen River, About 1650, Oil on panel, 33.7 x 45.1 cm (13 ¼ x 17 3/4 in.), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward A. Taft, 60.982 iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Elizabeth Pergam, for her invaluable guidance throughout the research and writing process. I am very grateful for her support. iv Introduction Under the Third Reich, European Jews suffered one of the most pervasive instances of looting of property, assets, and art in modern history. Initially following World War II, the Allies and the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) Program worked to return works of art to their countries of origin. While these efforts did result in numerous successful restitutions, by the mid-1950s, efforts of returning Nazi-Era works of art had slowed significantly and public interest in the matter 1 had waned. In the late 1990s, the subject again became a matter of public interest as a result of several factors: Lynn H. Nicholas published a fundamental text on the subject titled The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third ReiCh and the SeCond World War in 1994, and in 1997, Hector Feliciano published another key book titled The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art. Also beginning in 1997 was the landmark case United States v. Portrait of Wally, which generated widespread attention and subsequently sparked other claimants to come 2 forward with similar cases. This resurgence of interest in Holocaust-Era Restitutions occurred shortly after the invention of the World Wide Web in 1991. As the Internet became more widely available, museums began to use technology more effectively. Museums also began the process of digitizing their collections and publishing this information online. Today, museum websites and online collections have become integral to the 1 Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 442. 2 Nicholas O’Donnell, A TragiC Fate: Law and EthiCs in the Battle Over Nazi-looted Art (Chicago: American Bar Association, 2017), 74. 1 museum structure, and nearly all major museums have a department dedicated to their digital presence. 3 The literature on Nazi-Era looting is vast, and although a newer field of study, the literature on museums’ use of technology is also quite comprehensive. The fundamental texts on these subjects have helped to form the basis of this research. However, very little scholarship has been published on the relationship between Holocaust-Era restitution and the Internet. Although the advances of museum digitization occurred almost simultaneously with the resurgence in Holocaust-Era restitution, little research has been conducted to examine the link between these two subjects. This study will survey how the digitization of United States museum collections and the creation of museum provenance research projects has contributed to Holocaust-Era Restitution of works of art (and moreover), how these online collections and provenance projects could be further improved, using several museums as case studies. The first chapter will provide a brief history of Nazi looting during World War II and the years directly following the war. This chapter will discuss the systematic process of looting undertaken by the Nazi Regime. It will highlight the role of documentation in the Nazis’ bureaucratic and organized plunder of Jewish property and assets, as well as in restitution efforts. The chapter will also examine how the art market affected the dissemination of these works of art. As the epicenter of the art market shifted from Europe to the United States, many restituted works have materialized in the United States in recent history.
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