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G. Cramer Oude Kunst Gallery Records
2001.M.5
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Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: G. Cramer Oude Kunst gallery records
Creator: Cramer, Hans M.
Creator: Bloch, Vitale
Creator: G. Cramer Oude Kunst
Creator: Cramer, Gustav
Creator: Smith College. Museum of Art
Creator: Cranbrook School (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.)
Creator: Allen Memorial Art Museum
Creator: Toledo Museum of Art
Creator: Wittmann, Otto, 1911-2001
Creator: Detroit Institute of Arts
Creator: Parks, Robert O.
Creator: Held, Julius S. (Julius Samuel), 1905-2002
Creator: Kamphuisen, P. W. (Pieter Wilhelmus), 1897-1961
Creator: Grigaut, Paul L.
Creator: Stechow, Wolfgang, 1896-1974
Creator: Thyssen-Bornemisza, Hans Heinrich, Baron
Creator: Getty, J. Paul (Jean Paul), 1892-1976
Creator: Magriel, Paul, 1906-1990
Creator: Henschel, Oscar Robert
Creator: Henschel, Hildegard, 1909-
Creator: Hackenbroch, Yvonne
Creator: Müller Hofstede, Cornelius
Creator: Grote-Hasenbalg, Werner, 1888-
Creator: Dussler, Luitpold, 1895-1976
Creator: Gelder, J. G. van (Jan Gerrit), 1903-1980
Creator: Planiscig, Leo, 1887-1952
Creator: Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham, Sir, 1913-1994
Creator: Blunt, Anthony, 1907-1983
Creator: Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit
Creator: Posse, Hans, 1879-1942
Creator: Göpel, Erhard
Creator: Hartlaub, Gustav Friedrich, 1884-1963
Creator: Haberstock, Karl, 1878-1956
Creator: Cate, H. E. ten
Creator: Gilbert, L. H.
Creator: Erasmus, Kurt, 1880-
Creator: Friedländer, Max J., 1867-1958
Creator: Julius Böhler (Firm)
Creator: Hannema, D. (Dirk), 1895-1984
Identifier/Call Number: 2001.M.5
Physical Description: 409.80 Linear Feet(944 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1873-1998, bulk 1938-1998
Date (bulk): 1938-1998
Abstract: The records of G. Cramer Oude Kunst in The Hague in the Netherlands document the gallery's business since the early 1900s
until the late 1990s, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1938 to 1998. Of particular research value are Gustav Cramer's
WWII correspondence and sales receipts regarding his dealings with Nazi agents for Adolf Hitler's museum in Linz. The archive
may be the only uncensored dealer archive documenting the international art market in Nazi-occupied Europe. It comprises over
sixty years of the gallery's correspondence and financial records. Also present is a portion of the photographic archive,
including circa 500 glass plate negatives, and sales catalogs.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is predominantly in Dutch, with some material in English, French, or German.
Acquired in 2001.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Open for access by qualified researchers.
Biographical / Historical Note
The gallery of the art dealers Gustav Cramer (1881-1961) and his son Hans Max Cramer (b. 1920) was one of the most renowned
and influential galleries dealing in old master paintings during the 20th century in Europe. The gallery was founded in Kassel
in the late 19th century by Gustav Cramer's grandfather, Max Cramer. In 1914 Gustav Cramer inherited the gallery. After World
War I Gustav Cramer moved to Berlin where for many years he worked at the renowned Van Diemen gallery, in charge of the old
masters section, or Alte Kunst. In 1933 he opened his own gallery in the Lennéstrasse in Berlin. In 1936, he was expelled
from the official artists' organization Reichskammer der Bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of Visual Art). In 1938, in order
to escape the Nazi regime, the family moved to the Netherlands and opened the G. Cramer Oude Kunst gallery in Javastraat 38
in The Hague. Under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands Gustav Cramer's son Hans Max Cramer became the official owner of
the gallery. While the son officially represented the gallery, the father continued to be in charge of business. After Gustav
Cramer's death in 1961, Hans Max Cramer continued his father's business.
During World War II Gustav Cramer dealt on consignment in fine and decorative arts, mainly with German dealers in Berlin.
He also engaged as an intermediary in transactions between Nazi agents collecting for Adolf Hitler's museum in Linz and Dutch
collectors and dealers who wanted their transactions with the Nazis to remain anonymous. After the war he continued to sell
decorative arts and old master paintings to a primarily Dutch and German clientele.
Between 1954 and 1959, the gallery eliminated decorative arts from its stock in order to focus on old master paintings. Records
from this period indicate that the firm also began to engage in business more regularly with numerous museums and private
collectors in the United States. In 1960 Hans Max Cramer changed the business strategy again and began selling paintings almost
exclusively on consignment, a concept for which he was criticized during the early 1960s. This approach turned out to be successful
at a time when many private collections were being sold and dispersed. Cramer was able to make substantial business deals
by representing some of the most important private collections in the Netherlands, including H.E. ten Cate, the Becker collection,
the C.J.K. van Aalst collection, the Sidney van den Bergh collection, and numerous others. The pool of clientele expanded
to include the world's most significant old master collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty
Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery, London, the National Gallery, Washington, the Minneapolis
Institute of Arts, the Toledo Art Museum, and the collections of L.H. Gilbert, Armand Hammer, Norton Simon, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza,
and many others.
Hans Max Cramer studied at the prestigious Dutch school for art history, the Rijksinstituut voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie
in The Hague. He was head of the study-room for Dutch and Flemish old masters, and wrote a great number of articles for the
Dutch encyclopaedia Winkler Prins. During the 1980s he curated the exhibition
Dutch Painting of the Golden Age from the Royal Picture Gallery, Mauritshuis and the Galleries of Hans M. Cramer and John
Hoogsteder
, held in The Hague in 1986. It was the first publicly sponsored exhibition curated by dealers.
Organized in five series: Series I. Correspondence, 1876-1998; Series II. Financial records, 1920-1998; Series III. Photographs,
undated; Series IV. Glass plate negatives, undated; Series V. Miscellaneous papers, 1873-1998.
Interview with Hans Cramer, 2004 April 1-2. Special Collections Accession no. 2004.M.26.
Scope and Content of Collection
The archive of the gallery G. Cramer Oude Kunst in The Hague in the Netherlands is a rich resource for the study of the international
market in old master paintings from the late 1930s through the end of the 20th century. It contains the gallery's complete
business records from 1938 to 1998. Of particular research value is the documentation of the activities under Nazi occupation
during WWII, especially correspondence and receipts regarding the gallery's dealings with Nazi agents for Adolf Hitler's museum
in Linz. It may be the only uncensored dealer archive documenting the international art market in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Series I consists of 347 boxes of correspondence with major art museums all over the world, but mainly in Europe, the United
States, and Canada, numerous art dealers, private collectors, auction houses, conservators, editors of art magazines, and
renowned art historians, and also with insurance agencies, transport firms, financial institutions, and lawyers. The letters
regard predominantly acquisition, shipment, conservation, and sale of paintings. Frequently they provide commentary on current
trends in the international art market, prices, aesthetics, and collecting. Also present are personal exchanges between various
members of the Cramer family and friends, especially extensive from the late 1930s until the late 1940s. A portion of the
correspondence in the postwar period, continuing well into the 1960s, deals with restitution issues and Nazi business dealings
for the museum in Linz.
Series II is the most extensive portion of the archive. It consists of 558 boxes housing the firm's complete financial records
dating from the 1920s until 1998. The most substantial portion is comprised of account files and bank statements. Also present
are tax records, sales reports, commission books, and insurance records.
Series III consists of 29 boxes predominantly of photographs of paintings and decorative arts, and photographs of the gallery.
Also present are photographs received from clients, and x-rays of paintings. This series comprises only a portion of the gallery's
vast photo archive, most of which was donated to the Rijksdienst voor Kunsthistorische Dokumentatie (RKD).
Series IV consists of 11 boxes with circa 500 glass plate negatives of art that passed through the gallery during the late
1950s and the 1960s.
Series V. comprises additional prewar and postwar business correspondence of Hugo Cramer, Gustav Cramer, and Hans Max Cramer;
personal correspondence and documents concerning the Cramer family; lists of artworks; some financial documents such as invoices,
sales agreements, and commission agreements; documents of Hans Max Cramer's dealings with the Association of Art Dealers in
the Netherlands, CINOA [International Confederation of Art and Antique Dealers'], and the Rotary Club; and various publications,
such as annotated auction catalogs, the gallery's sales catalogs, a collection of newspapers and magazines from the time of
World War II, and a collection of press clippings.
Alan Tomlinson processed the entire collection when it was acquired in 2001. Between 2011 and 2016 Isabella Zuralski-Yeager
wrote the finding aid and performed additional processing. Jasmin Larkin helped processing portions of Series II. Financial
files. The collection is now fully processed with the exception of additional material acquired in 2015. Name indexes for
Series I. are in process, with indexing of material from 1938-1970 completed by Jade Finlinson, who continued the work of
Isabella Zuralski-Yeager and Barbara Selwyn.
G. Cramer Oude Kunst gallery records, 1873-1998, (bulk 1938-1998), The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no.
2001.M.5
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2001m5
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art dealers -- Correspondence
Art historians -- Correspondence
Art treasures in war -- Netherlands
National socialism and art -- Netherlands
Radiographs
Photographs, Original
Color photographs
Black-and-white photographs
Gelatin dry plate negatives
World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war
Art -- Private collections
Art dealers -- Archives
Cramer, Hans M.
Cramer, Gustav
G. Cramer Oude Kunst