WWII Era Provenance Research Project

The University of Michigan has embarked on a multi-year project to research its museum and library collections to identify objects that may have been unlawfully appropriated during World War II and to make public information that results from this project. The project, coordinated by the Museum of Art on behalf of the University, will focus on objects made or traded in continental Europe that were created before 1946 and acquired by the University of Michigan after 1932.

The project is an effort to comply with guidelines issued by the American Association of Museums in 1999 and 2001 as well as the University’s own standards for ethical practice.

Using AAM guidelines as a framework, the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) has identified works in its collections that are at highest risk for having been looted during World War II. These include all paintings, sculptures, and drawings by European and American artists created before 1946 and acquired by the museum after 1932 that may have been traded in continental Europe.

The Museum of Art is committed to making the results of this research accessible to the public. All works that are determined to have changed hands in continental Europe during the critical years, or those with a gap in their provenance, will be submitted to the AAM’s Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal—a tool designed to provide people searching for lost items with a single searchable registry of objects that changed hands in continental Europe from 1933 to 1945.

Félix Ziem
View of Venice
oil on panel
26 5/8 in x 37 11/16 in (67.63 cm x 95.73 cm);33 3/8 in x 44 5/8 in (84.77 cm x 113.35 cm)
Gift of Dr. Coleman Mopper
Jean-Antoine Watteau
Assembly in a Park
oil on canvas
21 1/2 in. x 38 1/8 in. ( 54.6 cm x 96.8 cm )
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Reed M. Nesbit
Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom
A View of Pont Saint Esprit-sur-Rhone
pen and ink on white paper
6 9/16 in x 9 1/16 in (16.67 cm x 23.02 cm);8 ⅞ in x 12 3/10 in (22.54 cm x 31.27 cm)
Museum Purchase
A bowl containing apples rests in the center, flanked by two conical drinking cups.
Maurice de Vlaminck
Still Life with Apples (Nature Morte aux Pommes)
oil on canvas
19 3/4 in x 25 9/16 in (50.1 cm x 64.9 cm);28 1/2 in x 34 3/4 in (72.39 cm x 88.27 cm)
Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Helmut Stern
Maurice de Vlaminck
Untitled
gouache on paper mounted on canvas
9 7/16 in x 11 7/8 in (23.97 cm x 30.16 cm);19 7/8 in x 22 3/8 in (50.48 cm x 56.83 cm)
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family
Claude-Joseph Vernet
Seascape
oil on canvas
13 7/8 in. x 18 5/16 in. ( 35.2 cm x 46.5 cm )
Gift of George Baumgartner in memory of Max Baumgartner
Lucas van Uden
Landscape with Travelers
oil on paper, mounted on board
9 ⅜ in x 13 ¾ in (23.81 cm x 34.92 cm);13 ½ in x 16 15/16 in (34.29 cm x 43.02 cm)
Bequest of Doris Margaret Grigaut for the Paul Leroy Grigaut Memorial Collection
The half-length figure of a woman looks directly out of the painting and holds the bearded head of a man on a platter in her hands. She wears a fine robe with large white sleeves and collar, a soft hat with a small white feather, and a bejeweled pin on her left shoulder. The face of an older woman with deeply wrinkled skin appears in the shadows behind her.
Gaspare Traversi
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
oil on canvas
33 3/8 in x 27 1/2 in (84.77 cm x 69.85 cm);33 3/8 in x 27 1/2 in x 1 3/4 in (84.77 cm x 69.85 cm x 4.45 cm)
Gift of the Friends of the Museum of Art in Honor of the Museum's Fiftieth Anniversary
David Teniers the Younger
Tavern Scene
oil on panel
13 13/16 x 11 1/16 in. (35 x 28 cm);19 x 16 3/16 in. (48.26 x 40.96 cm)
Gift of Alice and Henry Landau
Groups of men gamble, smoke, and drink in a dark guardroom. In the left foreground a seated man wearing a red sash lights his white clay pipe, while his companion pauses his smoking to listen to a man standing next to him. The red of the smoker's sash is repeated in the flag and fabrics strewn about in the right foreground, which form part of a still-life of weapons, musical instruments, and glinting armor heaped together against the wall. Between these brightly lit foreground vignettes the scene recedes into the darkened interior where a group of five men gather about a table to gamble.
David Teniers the Younger
Interior of a Guardroom
oil on panel
29 13/16 x 39 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (75.57 x 100.01 x 6.35 cm);29 13/16 x 39 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (75.57 x 100.01 x 6.35 cm)
Museum Purchase
This small bust-length figure represents a mustached satyr turning his head toward his left. He wears an animal skin tied at his right shoulder over his bare chest. The liquid character of the cast bronze admirably captures the rippling muscles of the satyr's chest and the flowing curls of his hair and the animal pelt.
Massimiliano Soldani Benzi
Bust of a Satyr
bronze on wood base
18 11/16 in. x 9 13/16 in. x 5 11/16 in. ( 47.5 cm x 25 cm x 14.5 cm )
Gift of Anonymous Donors for The Paul Leroy Grigaut Memorial Collection
Three men praying towards an orange and grey storm, two camels on left hand side. One man is standing, others are kneeling.
Conrad Peter Schreiber
Biskra
oil on canvas
43 1/2 in x 74 1/2 in x 6 in (110.49 cm x 189.23 cm x 15.24 cm)
Gift of Professor Hereward T. Price

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126 Collection Object Sources

View of Venice (1972/2.353)
Untitled (1997/1.108)
Seascape (2002/2.112)
Tavern Scene (1991/2.106)
Bust of a Satyr (1970/1.193)
Biskra (1945.1)
Uomo in movimento (1959/2.100)
The Concierge (1973/1.809)
Eternal Spring (1976/1.235)
John Giles (1969/2.162)
Soldier (1985/1.194)
Untitled (1983/1.402)
Wounded Man (1987/1.263)
The Three Trees (1983/1.409)
The Flood (1985/2.70)
The Laundress (1973/2.78)
Seated Nude (1985/1.127)
Two Figures (1948/1.212)
Seated Nude (1948/2.27)
Composition (1955/2.10)
St. Jude (1968/2.48)
St. Andrew (1968/2.33)
Bust of Diana (1986/2.83)
Deer in the Woods (1958/1.135)
Amphitrite (2002/2.113)
Cow and Bull (1972/2.8)
Young Arab Girl (1981/2.66)
Untitled (2000/2.311)
The Fish Seller (1981/1.326)
Panel (1961/2.7)
Angel (1969/2.157)

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July 24, 2017 2:03 p.m.

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