Indexing the inventory and stock ledgers of the Thannhauser galleries

In the summer of 2005, the archive of the Thannhauser galleries (Munich, Lucerne, Berlin, Paris, New York, 19091971)which for a long time was believed to be lostwas given to the Zentralarchiv des internationalen Kunsthandels e.V. (Central Archive of the International Art TradeZADIK) where, before its indexing, it became the most researched inventory A 77. The Thannhauser archive has been reorganized for long-term archiving and takes up around ten meters of shelf space. It is distributed among 45 archive cardboard containers and 14 archive boxes for the Berlin (12 boxes) and the New York (two boxes) customer file and other storage media.

To protect the documents, some of which are very fragile, the digitization process was begun immediately, funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Digitization included all stock ledgers, the complete Berlin customer file (with entries on more than 3,000 customers), the New York stock file, a large number of photos and manuscripts, as well as business correspondence. The inventory in the database currently comprises around 13,000 digitized documents. The indexing that is relevant for provenance research matters was funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media through the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag.

Funding from the Bureau for Provenance Research in 2009 enabled the keywording and partial transcription of the inventory books and stock ledgers 17:

A77, XIX, 001 stock ledger I, Munich and (from 1928) Berlin for Lucerne (and other locations), 47 described pages, 26 digital documents

A77, XIX, 002 stock ledger II, Munich (from 1924) and Berlin (from 1928) to Lucerne, 85 described pages, 52 digital documents

A77, XIX, 003 inventory book Berlin stock (from 1928), sections of Paris stock, 157 described pages, 158 digital documents

A77, XIX, 004 small notebook, Paris approx. 1937 to August 1939, New York from 1941, 61 described pages, 29 digital documents

A77, XIX, 005 inventory book, Paris and New York, end of 1930s and 1940s, 70 described pages, 39 digital documents

A77, XIX, 006 inventory book (ring binder), New York and Bern, blue plastic, 156 described pages, 86 digital documents

A77, XIX, 007 small ring binder New York and Bern, caiman leather, 85 described pages, 57 digital documents

These books with entries from the years 1919 to approx. 1971 provide much clearer information about the gallerys purchases, sales and accounting transactions than the previously already accessible customer file. The artists, customers (public and private collectors) and dealers mentioned on each book page were tagged by name. The books were partially transcribed according to their classification. In the books, the following were transcribed (according to their own categorization): The consecutive number of the transaction, the date of receipt/purchase, the name of the consignor/vendor, the name of the artist, the title of the masterpiece, the technique/material of the masterpiece, the dimensions of the masterpiece, the date of submission/sale, the name of the recipient/buyer and the address of the recipient/buyer.

Following this indexing, all data relevant for provenance researchsuch as name, work title, dimensions, annual figures and so oncan now be found in the database using the search function. Any necessary further research can be done swiftly on site at the ZADIK or undertaken by the staff of the ZADIK. All the digital images are also available now at the PC workstations in the ZADIK itself.