Auction Records 1933-1945:

As part of the international project “German Sales 1930-1945. Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy” auction catalogues from Germany, Switzerland and Austria published between 1930 and 1945 are being identified, which are an essential source of information on the German art market during the Third Reich and for provenance research. The project will enable museums worldwide to clarify doubtful provenances and families to identify the sales of their artworks, and will lead to a greater understanding of the dynamics of the art market during the Third Reich.

The three partners in the project are the Getty Research Institute, the Kunstbibliothek—Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,the Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg and the Forschungsstelle "Entartete Kunst" at the Universität Hamburg. 

The Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg has already digitised a large number of catalogues, including some from the Netherlands and France, and some of these catalogues are annotated. For a list of auction houses whose catalogues are now available online, click here.  To search by artist and work of art, click here.  

The resulting  integrated database of these auction records will eventually form part of the Getty Provenance Index®.  For further information from the Getty, click here. For detailed information about the project, available on the portal arthistoricum,net, click here.