Auction catalogues – digitized
(http://artsales.uni-hd.de/)
Within its special subject collection Art History the University Library of Heidelberg holds some thousand auction catalogues of different German and international auctioneers.
Within the scope of the international cooperation project “German Sales 1930-1945. Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy” auction catalogues from Germany, Switzerland and Austria published between 1930 and 1945 are set to be digitized and made available online from November 1st, 2010 on. OCR processing provides searchable fulltext integrated into the Getty Provenance Index®.
As a result the project provides essential and freely available sources on the German art market during the “Third Reich”. Auction catalogues are extremely important for provenance research. The project will serve to clarify doubtful provenances of museums holdings worldwide and to a better understanding of the dynamics of the art market under the special political situation during the “Third Reich”. For detailed information see portal arthistoricum.net.
The Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin is the partner of the project, which holds the most extensive collection of auction catalogues in Germany, the University Library of UB Heidelberg with its broad experience with digitization projects comparable to this and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, in Los Angeles with its knowledge on database infrastructure tested and proven over decades. As a cooperation partner the Arbeitsstelle für Provenienzrecherche/-forschung (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) is embedded into the project.
The project is supported for two years by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the foundation National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the VolkswagenStiftung.
RSS-Feed (RSS 2.0)„German Sales 1930-1945. Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy”
Auction catalogues before 1930
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Further information:- All digitized works are retrievable in HEIDI and therefore in SWB and artlibraries.net as well.
- Overview of auction catalogues in the collection of the Heidelberg University Library (ordered by auctioneers)
Questions, suggestions and criticism to 
Dr. Maria Effinger
