Provenance Discussion Group

Minutes

April 2, 2001

Art Libraries Society of North America 29^th Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA

Present:

Co-moderators: Lauren Lessing, Art Institute of Chicago and Marcy Neth, Art Institute of Chicago

22 attendees

Participants introduced themselves.

Moderators asked about resources being used successfully for research:

Dealer information:

The Frick has catalogs from the Rosenberg Gallery including all the one-person shows.
The Getty has a number of Gallery Archives.  Where are other dealer archives?  Check RLIN and OCLC for holdings.  Would it be possible to create a list of local holdings, especially of unprocessed archives?

Transit of artwork:

National Gallery has the microfilm from the Munich Collection point.
Researchers are reminded to always check the back of the picture for stamps.
Lauren is compiling a bibliography of books that deal with customs stamps.

Collectors:

Pay attention to the patterns of collection.
Collector's files at the Getty can be invaluable sources of information.
They can include inventories, newspaper and other periodical articles.

Auction Catalogs:

Met - the printed catalog is more complete than SCIPIO holdings.
The Art Institute, and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Museums of Art also believe their holdings on SCIPIO are not complete.

Other useful sources include:

The Getty Provenance Index.
The Commission for Art Recovery list of names, published in the Art Newspaper.
The National Archives.
Repertoire des biens spolies en France durant la guerre, 1939-1945.
Maecenas 1927, 1930 - Directory of collectors.
Social Security Death Index.
Ancestry.Com and the Mormon databases are useful but do not contain information about Jewish people.
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.
Directory of German Speaking Immigration after 1933.  This source includes names of those who immigrated to Latin American countries.
IDC is apparently automating Lugt.  No more information available.

In closing, everyone urged Terrence Ford to change priorities at the Getty Provenance Index to the 20th century.