Salzburg Regional Collections - Provenance Research and Restitution
Introduction to the database
The Landesgalerie - Salzburg Regional Art Gallery
Origin and restitution of the works in the Landesgalerie - Salzburg Regional Art Gallery
Which works of art are component parts of the databank?
Which parts of the Salzburg Regional collections are missing?
Since 1987 Salzburg Regional authorities have been checking the origin of contentious works of art in its collections. The official archives of Salzburg’s Regional Government were commissioned to analyse and publish the inventory of the acquisitions made between 1942 and 1944, in order to clarify the position as regards acquirement procedures at that time and the legal situation.
The publication entitled "The Inventory of Salzburg’s Regional Art Gallery 1942-1944" presents details about the acquisitions of works of art by the Salzburg Reichsgau during the Second World War. It also documents the heritage taken on and still held by the Salzburg Regional Collections in the Residenz Art Gallery and the Rupertinum.
As almost all the original files of the Regional Gallery are missing, despite intensive searching, it was possible in only a few cases to establish the provenance of the works of art. The publication of the inventory in April 2000 has so far not resulted in any requests by former owners or their heirs. The Internet version of the database “Salzburg Regional Art Gallery 1942 — 1944” is therefore a further attempt by the Salzburg Regional Government to offer the former owners of objects now in official ownership the possibility of restitution.
In the year 2000, Governor Dr. Franz Schausberger and the Regional Councillor responsible for cultural affairs, Dr. Othmar Raus, commissioned the setting up of a database concerned with the Salzburg Regional Art Gallery between 1942 and 1944. The project is being carried out by the Department of Arts and Leisure of Salzburg Regional Government. It is based primarily on data and results of the publication, "Fritz Koller: Das Inventarbuch der Landesgalerie Salzburg 1942-1944. Salzburg 2000". The official archivist Fritz Koller made use especially of documents in the Salzburg Regional Archives, the archives of the Residenz Gallery, the archives of Gallery Welz, in private archives, the archives of the Federal Monument Office in Vienna, the National Archives in Washington as well as relevant studies carried out by French researchers. The Salzburg Regional Archives, the Salzburg Regional Collections and the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum made major contributions by providing photos.
The results of current provenance research, in particular materials from the archives of the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum and the archives of the Federal Monument Office, in addition to the existing stock of the former Regional Gallery were also taken into account.
As the research studies have not yet been completed, this database still has a temporary character. Further results will be published in a later version.
Contents and search:
- The inventory published by Koller forms the basis of the database
- All 174 objects still existing in Salzburg are shown when no entry is made in the search field and “search” is clicked.
- You can print out the results of the search using the print command on your computer
- A search is possible according to the following criteria.
- All fields: standard setting
- Inventory number: inventory number of the Salzburg Regional Gallery
- Artist: artist’s name, e.g. Rudolf von Alt, or Italian, 18th century.
- Provenance: the provenance of almost all the objects listed in the database cannot be completely established or their origins are unclear
- Technique: e.g. oil/canvas, water-colour
- Work: the title given to an object listed in the book
- The following additional details about the work of art are also stated:
- Date of creation: the date when the work of art was created
- Dimensions: measurements of the work of art in centimetres or millimetres
- Technique: e.g. oil/canvas, copper engraving, water-colour/paper
- Location: present location of the works of art in the Residenz Gallery in Salzburg (RG Inv. No.), in the Rupertinum Museum of Modern Art, Salzburg (RU Inv. No.), in the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum (SMCA) and in the Estates Office of the Salzburg Regional Government (Liegenschaftsverwaltung)
- The spelling of the artists’ names follows current practice and differs in some cases from the spelling in the inventory
Salzburg Regional Art Gallery:
The Salzburg Regional Art Gallery was founded on 13 February 1942 by "Gauleiter" Gustav A. Scheel. It was the official art collection of the Salzburg Reichsgau and is to be understood as being completely separate from the Salzburg Residenz Gallery and the private Gallery Welz in Salzburg. The person responsible for setting up the Regional Gallery from 1940 to 1942 and its director from 1942 to 1944 was Friedrich Welz. From 8 May 1944 to 31 December 1945 its stock as a gallery of paintings partly belonged to the "Zweckverband" (joint organisation) Salzburg Museum. Professor Bruno Grimschitz, director of the Austrian Gallery in Vienna, was the director of this association until the end of the war.
Origin and Restitution of the Works in the Salzburg Regional Gallery:
The collections of the Salzburg Regional Gallery comprised 488 works of art — 459 pictures and 29 sculptures. Welz had bought about 310 objects from art markets in Paris, he acquired about 170 on home territory by purchase or exchange transactions or as gifts. 174 works of art from the former Salzburg Regional Gallery are still in Salzburg. Legal documents exist for all acquisition procedures carried out by the Regional Gallery, however considerable moral misgivings as regards the integrity of the source of supply and preceding transactions are in many cases entirely justified. In 1947 all the pictures of French origin, in so far as they were found in Salzburg, were returned to France by the French occupying forces. Of the acquisitions made on home territory, between 1947 and 1950 seven and in 1965 one more were returned to the heirs of Nazi victims. No further claims have been raised and so far there is no evidence of any. It cannot be ruled out that the absence of further claims results from a lack of information.
Stock of Salzburg Regional Art Gallery 1942-1945
| Total number of objects in the gallery: | 488 |
| Objects from France: | 318 |
| Objects from the Deutsches Reich (including the Ostmark, present day Austria: | 170 |
Whereabouts of the objects:
| Total number of objects in the gallery: | 488 |
| Whereabouts known: | 380 |
|
Returned to France: Returned (not including France): Existing in Salzburg: |
198 8 174 |
| Whereabouts unknown: | 108 |
Whereabouts of the French objects:
| Objects of French origin: | 318 |
| Whereabout known: | 217 |
|
Returned to France: Existing in Salzburg: Of these in the Residenz Gallery: |
198 19 19 |
| Whereabouts unknown: | 101 |
Whereabouts of the objects from the "Deutsches Reich":
| Objects from the "Deutsches Reich": | 170 |
| Whereabouts known: | 163 |
|
Returned to Nazi victims or their heirs (1947-1965): Existing in Salzburg: Of these in the Residenz Gallery: Of these in the Rupertinum: Of these in the Estates Office: Of these in the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum: |
8 155 107 44 3 1 |
| Whereabouts unknown: | 7 |
Which works of art are included in the database?
At present 174 works of art — some of unclear provenance, others where certain details of their provenance are missing — are included in the Internet database. Of these 155 objects are from the Deutsches Reich and 19 of French origin.
Which stocks are missing from the Salzburg Regional Colelctions?
The following are not included in the database:
- The objects restored to their owners or heirs after the Second World War (206 numbers)
- Missing objects (108 numbers)
- The objects acquired after the Second World War
The database is based on the information in the publication Das Inventarbuch der Landesgalerie Salzburg 1942-1944, Salzburg 2000 by Fritz Koller; the Verzeichnis der in Publikationen erwähnten Objekte der Landesgalerie zusammengestellt von Ulrike Klingenschmid (Koller, pages 542-548), Salzburg als Motiv. Die Graphiksammlung der Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Salzburg 1988; Schenkung von Friedrich Welz für die Salzburger Landessammlungen Rupertinum, Salzburg 1983, Residenzgalerie mit Sammlung Czernin und Sammlung Schönborn-Buchheim, Salzburg 1980 and archive research carried out by Gerhard Plasser.
In the "Inventarbuch", Koller uses information from two inventories of the Regional Gallery existing in the Salzburg Regional Archives (SLA 926/1 and 926/2). There are further copies in Vienna, FMO (Restitution Catalogue 49, Welz), Washington, NARA (HS 926/13 NARA II, R. G. 260, Box 64, entry 1 and in Paris, a list compiled according to receipts (Copy: SLA HS 926/18. Estimated values mostly result from notes in the hand-written "Inventarbuch II".
In 1944 the office administrator of the Regional Gallery, Martha Osthoff, drew up the following list of files:
List of books and files kept in the art gallery
- 3 Inventory books ‘G’, all with the same content (containing paintings and sculptures), 1 for St. Gilgen, 1 for the office at St. Peter’s , 1 previously for U-Abt. Iid (sub department Iid)
- 1 Inventory book containing reproductions (only just started)
- 1 Ledger
- 1 Delivery book for payment orders
- 1 Inventory register for ‘G’
- 1 Diary of daily events
- 1 Large loose-leaf file for current correspondence, special procedures in separate files etc.
- Payment orders
- Copies of bills
- Bank statements
- Sales receipts
- Dispatch notices
- Exhibition material
- Manuscripts
- Invoices (for the publishing concern)
- Orders of the association
- Monitoring lists
- Inventory of frames (not stapled)
- Inventory of furniture
- Index of addresses
An inventory index still has to be made
Salzburg, 12 July 1944
The following archive material was still in existence in the Salzburg Regional Art Gallery according to the transfer list of 26 January 1949 signed by Vernon R. Kennedy, Chief Property Control and Restitution Branch, Dr. Paul Horner, Head of Department VIIIc of the Salzburg Regional Government, Professor Rigobert Funke, Director of the Municipal Museum:
- Business records, photos and personal files belonging to Mr. Frederick Welz:
- 8 Office books
- 1 Office book, blank
- 11 Envelopes with photos of paintings and other art objects
- 15 Folders with correspondence
- 1 Box with letters and bills
- 2 Folders, account extracts [2]
[1] SMCA, Museum files, Salzburg Regional Gallery / Files 1944, M-Z, 7.
[2] FMO, Restitution, Box 49, Welz 1947-1952, sheets 1-148, sheets 24, 25; Compare Gert Kerschbaumer: Meister des Verwirrens. Die Geschäfte des Kunsthänders Welz, Vienna 2000, page 182.
