Provenance Research

Research on the objects in its collection is one of the Rijksmuseum's core tasks, and their provenance is part of this. As a public institution, the museum strongly believes that the results of this research should be accessible to everyone. Hence, since 2012 a professional team of about five full-time provenance specialists have been investigating the ownership history of objects that were involuntarily removed from Jewish possession under pressure of Nazi persecution. We recognize that this research started late and wish to contribute to the restoration of legal rights and to the historical memory of the Second World War.

The aim of the research is to uncover instances of theft, confiscation and sale under duress from the Nazi regime and make them public as soon as possible. In addition, we want the human stories, the family histories that emerge from this research to be told in the museum and to be given a natural place in the chronicle of the Netherlands’ own history. The Rijksmuseum displays physical objects and makes visible their various and varied stories. Accounts of the life of the objects’ previous owners, of the people who were persecuted and murdered during the Second World War, are part and parcel of this.

History of Provenance Research Second World War

Provenance research on art looted during the Nazi regime only commenced in the museum world after the major conference held in Washington in 1998, which led 44 countries, including the Netherlands, to sign the Washington Principles. In the same year, the Rijksmuseum commissioned a researcher to inventory the objects in its collection with a possibly suspect provenance. In 2009, the Netherlands Museums Association asked Dutch museums to investigate the ownership history of works in their own collection. As this request came in the period of the Rijksmuseum’s major renovation (2003-2013), it could not immediately take action.

After a preparatory phase, in 2012 the Rijksmuseum was finally able to appoint a team of researchers who were to focus exclusively on the provenance of all the museum's acquisitions from 1933 onwards. The literal mission of the Museums Association was: ‘Provenance research on objects whose ownership history suggests theft, confiscation, sale under duress or other suspicious circumstances that took place from 1933 up to and including the end of the Second World War.’ The Rijksmuseum deployed this mission more broadly and earmarked all objects acquired between 1933-2012 (since 2012, the provenance research has been carried out by the curators prior to an object’s inclusion in the collection) and which were made before 1945. The museum exercises high standards with respect to the quality of this research.

This research is very extensive as the museum has more than 80,000 objects that fall within the above-mentioned parameters. Research on over 14,000 objects was completed between 2012 and 2020. All the paintings were looked into first. This was followed by the drawings, which has only partly been completed. Next, the group of approximately 1800 objects from the former collection of Dr Fritz Mannheimer (Stuttgart 1890–Vaucresson 1939) was investigated. Dr Mannheimer collected mainly in the 1930s in German and occupied territory. Accordingly, the objects he owned are at an increased risk of having a dubious provenance.

The research results are presented in reports and published on the Rijksmuseum’s website. The individual reports can be found on this page and provenance information of individual objects is given in the object information. In addition, the objects marked with an unclear provenance are highlighted separately on the special website the Museums Association developed for this purpose: Museum Acquisitions from 1933 onwards.

To date (October 2020), the research has uncovered 113 objects with an unclear provenance: 18 paintings, 2 silver objects and 1 gilt bronze object and 92 porcelain (groups of) objects.

For the continuation of this research the museum has opted for prioritizing certain groups of objects with the greatest chance of having a suspicious provenance. For this reason, in the coming years the focus will be on acquisitions between 1933-54 throughout various sub-collections. Asian objects, drawings, historical objects, sculpture and decorative art will each be addressed.

In 2020, a team of specialists with different expertise have been researching this group of approximately 10,000 objects, which is scheduled to be completed by 2023. Recovering and preserving knowledge and archiving the research are considered essential, not only for possible additional research, but also to preserve personal stories for future generations so that the horrors of the Second World War are not forgotten. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the research as a whole or specific objects, do not hesitate to get in touch with us using the contact details below.

More reports will follow soon.

Photo: Image Department, Rijksmuseum, paintings on racks and rolled up, Exhibition of the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit with recuperated works, 1950