German Sales 1930-1945. Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy

The aim of the project “German Sales 1930-1945. Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy” is to index up to 2.200 auction catalogues in the Getty Provenance Index®. The auction catalogues are from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other countries, which were occupied during the Second World War between 1930 and 1945 by Germany. The entire catalogues will furthermore be digitized, the fulltexts will be made researchable through OCR, and made accessible for academic evaluation through arthistoricum.net – the Virtual Library for Art History.

The project partners are the Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen in Berlin, which holds the most extensive collection of auction catalogues in Germany, the Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg with its broad experience with digitization projects comparable to this, and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles with its knowledge on database infrastructure tested and proven over decades.

As a result the project will provide essential sources on the German art market for Provenance Research and for academic research in art history and social sciences, and will make them freely accessible to the general public.