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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

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Title
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

Description
NARA is the central US resource containing archival records relating to Nazi-era assets. A guide to NARA records on the identification, recovery and restitution of Nazi-confiscated assets has been made available in print as Holocaust Era Assets: A Finding Aid to Records at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, compiled by Greg Bradsher. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1999. 1166 pages. The publication can be ordered from the National Archives and Records Administration at the address below. The Finding Aid is also available online.

NARA holds a significant number of records on Nazi-era art provenance and claims, most of which are included in the Finding Aid. A process of microfilming and digitising these records is ongoing. Among these records are the following:

  • RG 38: Office of Strategic Studies (OSS) Art Looting Reports covering the key individuals and Nazi organisations involved in looting.
  • RG 239: The American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (Roberts Commission) with card files including art looting suspects, dealers, art experts, looted objects and firms involved in looting.
  • RG 260: Records of US Allied Command Austria (USACA), Monuments & Fine Arts Branch(MFA),  including details of claims and restitution of property from Austria.
  • RG 260: Records of the Office of the Military Governor United States (OMGUS), Museum, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFAA), with extensive details of individual claims by country of origin 1946-1948.
  • RG 260: Records (Ardelia Hall Collection) of Museum, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFAA) of the Central Collecting Points at Marburg, Munich and Wiesbaden, including the individual cards listing each work recovered and inventoried, captured German documents, reports on individuals involved in art looting or possession of looted property and interrogation reports.
  • RG 260: Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) card records from Paris 1940-1945, providing details of individual works of art looted by the Nazi organisation in Paris.
  • RG 331: ERR records, including lists of works purchased in France, works selected for Hitler and Göring, records of individual collections such as the Goudstikker collection, Amsterdam, and the Rothschild collection, France
  • RG 59: State Department Records, with lists of missing objects in Austria and stolen objects in Italy. 
  • RG 260: Almost 17,000 negatives taken at the Central Collecting Point Munich between 1945-1947 of works of art expropriated by the Nazis and recovered by the Allies. There are also photographs from the Marburg Collecting Point, and photographs taken by the Special Staff for Pictorial Art in the Operational Headquarters of Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg of works of art taken for Hitler's planned museum in Linz.

    The complete list of records with a full description of each holding is available online here.

  • See also information and access to the Art Looting Intelligence Unit Reports here.

    Contact Information 
    National Archives at College Park
    8601 Adelphi Road
    College Park, MD 20740-6001
    http://www.archives.gov

    Research Hours
    Monday & Wednesday 8:45-5
    Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 8:45-9
    Saturday 8:45-4:45
    Closed Sundays and Federal Holidays

    Source
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), <http://www.archives.gov>, accessed 28 November 2002

     

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