Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Looted art
archive

Six hundred works of uncertain provenance listed in report on UK museums

This will assist in the identification of looted artworks

Martin Bailey
1 January 2001
Share

To assist in the identification of looted works of art, the UK National Museum Directors’ Conference has published a further report on items with an uncertain wartime provenance.

It includes new material on the British Library and the National Maritime Museum, as well as updated information on 10 institutions covered in last February’s report, which listed 350 works. Research is also promised at university and local authority museums, such as the Ashmolean, the Fitzwilliam, the Courtauld, Birmingham City Museums and Art Gallery and Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery. The Courtauld plan is particularly helpful, since it highlights 18 “high priority” paintings—eight works by Rubens, three by Tiepolo, and others by the Cologne School, Degas, Koenig, the Master of Ulm, Oost and Tintoretto, plus a forgery by Hans van Meegeren.

The new national museums’ report, listing a total of 600 works with uncertain provenance, is available on www.nationalmuseums.org. uk/spoliation.

Following our article on the national museums’ first report (The Art Newspaper, No. 102, April 2000, p.14), an elderly dealer in Lucerne contacted the British Museum about Van Gogh’s “La Crau from Montmajour”. The woman explained that her father had been a friend of collector Anthony van Hoboken, who had owned the drawing from 1928 until after the war. She has her father’s copy of the catalogue for the 1945 Van Gogh exhibition at Basel with Hoboken’s name annotated as the owner. This confirms that the work was not looted, and it has therefore been removed from the list of works with an uncertain provenance for the Nazi period.

So far the only formal claim to the newly established Spoliation Advisory Panel is for Jan Griffier’s “View of Hampton Court Palace”, at the Tate and a claim is now being submitted for the Benevento Missal in the British Library (see p.9). New information has just been received from Cologne auctioneer Lempertz, who sold the Griffier in 1955, revealing that the vendor was a collector in Offenbach, outside Frankfurt. The painting is now being claimed by three elderly members of a German family living in the south-east of England, who say that their mother was forced to sell it in Brussels in 1940. The Spoliation Advisory Panel considered the case on 2 November and its report has just gone to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Arts Minister Mr Alan Howarth is expected to make an announcement on the fate of the Griffier shortly.

Looted artAuthenticationBritish LibraryCourtauld GalleryNazi lootProvenanceMuseums
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Lootingarchive
31 March 2000

In an attempt to find works of art that may have been stolen by the Nazis ten British museums have named 350 works of art whose history between 1933 and 1945 is uncertain

British provenance probes

Martin Bailey
Goudstikkerarchive
1 January 2008

Successful Amsterdam sale concludes the series of Goudstikker auctions

Old masters, recovered as a result of one of the world’s largest Nazi restitution claims, net $20m

Nina Siegal
Looted artarchive
1 March 1999

The National Gallery investigates wartime provenance of 120 paintings

The London gallery aims to ensure that they are not war loot and appeals for assistance in checking their recent histories

Martin Bailey