DocQuest

Appearance

The City Archives Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Art Collections, Sales and Acquisition Files ​

Overview ​

In the Düsseldorf City Archives, the archival collections relevant for provenance research are found primarily in Collection Group IV (Records of the City Administration 1933 ff.). This is the central documentation of the municipal authorities related to Museums acquisitions during the Nazi era. Within the archival collection the completed purchases but particularly also the offers made to the Art Museum have been preserved chronologically and alphabetically, almost without any gaps, and were further processed within the Project for full-text searching. The gallery landscape not only of Düsseldorf, but of numerous other art dealerships in the former German Reich and far beyond can be reconstructed. For example the Düsseldorf Director Hans Wilhelm Hupp, who served from 1933 to 1943, and his staff were also frequently asked to prepare expert opinions for art dealers, private individuals, or institutions, these files are also included here.

It's also important to mention that the secret registry of the mayors between 1933 and 1945 was deliberately and almost entirely destroyed shortly before the end of the war. Thus, the files in the corresponding records of the offices represent very important source Corpora/contextual information.

Content ​

  • All written offers and purchases of the Düsseldorf museums (Art Museum, City Museum, Hetjens Museum and the Benrath Palace).
  • The six files with expert opinions from staff members of the Düsseldorf Art Museum.
  • Selected files and documentation of the Cultural Administration (Name), and correspondences with the City Mayor.
  • Special files and documentation of the Management of the Düsseldorfer Art Museum (Budget-Finances, Foreign Museums and Loan applications etc.).

DocQuest Search Features ​

  • Full-text search available
  • Document-level navigation
  • Search on summarized correspondances

As part of our AI efforts on archival data, summaries were created on offers and purchases of the city's museums. Thus apart from the fulltext search on page level you can also search within these summarized processes. Summaries are also available for reading.

Further Materials ​

80 Art Market Actors (Individuals and Institutions):
https://www.duesseldorf.de/fileadmin/Amt41-Zoll/kulturamt/pdf/Provenienzforschung/Personendossiers_final.pdf

Further search options via archive.nrw:
https://www.archive.nrw.de/archivsuche?link=VERZEICHUNGSEINHEIT-Vz_0102D5CA-1B71-4EB0-A01D-FA6542E3AED2