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Title: Wilhelm Arntz papers
Date (inclusive): 1898-1986
Number: 840001
Creator/Collector:
Arntz, Wilhelm F.
Physical Description:
159 Linear Feet
(295 boxes)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: Comprehensive research collection on
twentieth century art, especially German Expressionism, compiled by the art expert Wilhelm
Friedrich Arntz. A vast portion of the collection consists of research files on individual
artists. Of particular interest are files concerning the so-called degenerate art campaign
by the Nazis and the recovery of confiscated artwork after World War II. Extensive material
documents Arntz's professional activities.
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Language: Collection material is in
German.
Wilhelm Friedrich Arntz (1903-1985) was a German lawyer, art expert and independent
researcher of twentieth century art. He was also one of the early collectors of German
Expressionism. Parallel to collecting artworks, he aquired publications on 20th century art
and compiled a wealth of archival material, including newspaper clippings, correspondence of
artists, art historians and dealers, and ephemeral items such as invitations to exhibition
openings.
Trained as a lawyer, Arntz began his professional career as political editor for the
newspaper
Frankurter Generalanzeiger, but he lost his job in
1933 after the Nazis came to power. He was hired as a foreign correspondent for the
HUCK-Verband, a major German newspaper trust in London in the 1930s.
Shortly after the war Arntz worked as head of the department of cultural affaires
(Kulturreferat) in Stuttgart. In 1947, together with Robert Norman Ketterer he founded the
auction house Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett where he worked until 1955-1956 as a consultant and
expert on 20th century art. Subsequently, he worked until 1978 for the auction house
Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne. At the same time, he served as an expert on forgery in
various legal proceedings, such as the Malskat-case in 1954-1955 in Lübeck or the civil
action on a false Lautrec attribution in Munich in 1970. As a lawyer he was also involved in
cases concerning property law and restitution of artwork confiscated by the Nazis, as well
as insurance, tax matters, copyright law, and protection of cultural patrimony.
During World War II, Arntz lost most of his library and archive, the greater portion of
which he was able to rebuild after 1945. He enlarged his collection with copies or
transcripts of official statements, reports and letters by high ranking National Socialists
and post-war authorities on the so-called degenerate art campaign.
Arntz's collection, known as the Kunstarchiv Arntz, kept in his private home in Haag, in
Bavaria, served as the source of information for his various professional activities. With
certain limitations, he made his library and archival material available to the public and
allowed students and colleagues to conduct research in his home.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
Wilhelm Arntz papers, 1896-1986, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no.
840001.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa840001
The collection was acquired in 1985.
The collection was first processed in 1986-1987 by Ute Wachsmann-Linnan who also wrote an
inventory. Isabella Zuralski reprocessed the collection in 2007-2008 and completed the
finding aid in 2009.
Photographs and other images of artworks collected by Arntz were initially cataloged
separately. They are now merged with the archival files and comprise Series V. of this
finding aid. The bibliographic record for this portion of the Arntz papers in the Getty
online catalog has the acc. no. 87.P.1.
Art-related printed ephemera collected by Arntz are currently in process and will be
available upon completion of an online finding aid (acc. no. 2002.M.13).
Periodicals and monographs received with the Arntz collection were transferred to the
Getty Research Library, and are available for research.
Eight catalogs of auctions held at Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, with duplicates, and the
catalog of an auction by R.N. Ketterer held in Lugano have been transferred to the Getty
Research Library, and are available for research.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Wilhelm Arntz papers constitute a comprehensive research archive on twentieth-century
art compiled by the German lawyer, art expert and archivist Wilhelm Friedrich Arntz
(1903-1985).
The majority of the collection consists of research files on individual artists. More then
80 linear feet of material, the bulk dating from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s, details
individual artworks, auction sales, bibliograhical references, and press coverage of a vast
number of artists, predominantly German Expressionists, also numerous emerging and
established contemporary artists from Western and Eastern European countries, the United
States, and other countries.
The main portion consists of catalog sheets for artworks by individual artists. In many
cases, the collection of sheets, in extent and bibliographic detail, amounts to a catalogue
raisonée. Another large group of material comprises press articles on current exhibitions,
publications, auction sales, and events concerning individual artists.
A portion of the archive documents Arntz's interest in tracing the Nazi government's
campaign against modernist art and the efforts to recover looted artworks after the war.
Included are letters from artists, correspondence between Nazi officials and their
collaborators, numerous lists of confiscated artworks, as well as documents issued by
government authorities in postwar Germany. Most documents are typed transcripts or
photographs of original documents; only a few original documents are present. Also included
are photographs from the 1937
Entartete Kunst exhibition in
Munich.
The research files are augmented by a vast number of images of artworks collected by Arntz
in his effort to compile a comprehensive visual documentation of artwork by 20th-century
artists. The series is comprised of circa 70 linear feet of photographs, illustrated printed
matter, magazine clippings, and also numerous color transparencies and negatives, and a few
glass negatives.
Circa five linear feet of material document Arntz's professional activities.
Correspondence with artists, scholars, collectors, and publishing houses details his
involvement as a consultant and expert on 20th century art. Numerous files provide insight
into his expertise and engagement as a lawyer in cases concerning forgeries, copyright, tax,
and insurance.
Since the original arrangement of the material is not known, this finding aid follows
largely the order established when the collection was first processed in 1986-1987.
Organized in five series:
Series
I. Correspondence, 1912-1985
Series II. Expertise and appraisal, 1913-1984
Series III. Publications by Arntz,
1934-1983
Series IV.
Research files, 1896-1986
Series V. Images of artworks, undated.
Marc, Franz, 1880-1916
Macke, August, 1887-1914
Mueller, Otto, 1874-1930
Modigliani, Amedeo, 1884-1920
Nolde, Emil, 1867-1956
Müller-Wulckow, Walter,
1886-1964
Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973
Pechstein, Max,
1881-1955
Rohlfs, Christian,
1849-1938
Reutti, Kurt
Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl, 1884-1976
Schlemmer, Oskar, 1888-1943
Strauss, Ottmar
Schwitters, Kurt, 1887-1948
Weber, Andreas Paul,
1893-1980
Warhol, Andy, 1928-1987
Bill, Max, 1908-1994
Beckmann, Max, 1884-1950
Baumeister, Willi, 1889-1955
Barlach, Ernst, 1870-1938
Bünemann, Hermann
Borst, Hugo,
1881-1967
Bonnard, Pierre, 1867-1947
Chillida, Eduardo, 1924-2002
Chagall, Marc, 1887-1985
Franklin
Grieshaber, Helmut A. P.,
1909-1981
Dalí, Salvador, 1904-1989
Hofer, Carl, 1878-1955
Hundertwasser, Friedensreich,
1928-2000
Hajek, Otto Herbert,
1927-2005
Heckel, Erich, 1883-1970
Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944
Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig, 1880-1938
Janssen, Horst, 1929-1995
Jawlensky, Alexej von,
1864-1941
Kubin, Alfred, 1877-1959
Liebermann, Max, 1847-1935
Klee, Paul, 1879-1940
Kokoschka, Oskar, 1886-1980
Beuys, Joseph
Deutsche Zentralverwaltung für Volksbildung in der
Sowjetischen Besatzungszone
Verlag Das Beste
GmbH
Stuttgarter
Kunstkabinett
Privatinitiative Kunst
Kunsthaus Lempertz
Kommission zur Verwertung der eingezogenen Produkte
entarteter Kunst
Ernst Barlach
Gesellschaft
Galerie Fischer
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter
Rosenberg für die Besetzten Gebiete
Deutscher Werkbund
Kunstarchiv Arntz
Art treasures in war -- Germany
Art thefts -- Germany
National socialism and art
Art thefts -- France
World War, 1939-1945 -- Confiscations and contributions --
Germany
Art treasures in war -- France
Lost works of art -- Germany
Lost works of art -- France
World War, 1939-1945 -- Confiscations and contributions --
France
Art museums -- Destruction and pillage -- Germany
Art museums -- Destruction and pillage -- France
Art and state -- Germany
Art insurance -- Germany
Art, Modern -- 20th century
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Collectors and collecting --
Germany
Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Art -- Private collections -- Germany
Art -- Forgeries
Artists -- Germany -- Correspondence
Entartete Kunst
Expressionism (Art)
Germany -- Cultural policy -- History -- 20th century
Transcripts
Obituaries
Legal documents
Inventories
Color photographs
Clippings (information artifacts)
Dye diffusion transfer prints
Black-and-white prints (photographs)
Arntz, Wilhelm F.