EU FlagThe JDCRP pilot project is co-funded by the European Union

Pilot Project – The Fate of the Adolphe Schloss Collection

The Foundation’s initial pilot project is a 19-month project begun in January 2020 that focuses on the renowned Adolphe Schloss Collection of 17th and 18th century Dutch and Flemish Old Masters. With the assistance of a grant from the European Union, the project employs innovative digital modelling technology to bring new perspectives to the seizure and fate of the once renowned collection. A detailed timeline of events allows users to trace the journey of the 333 masterpieces in the collection from their time of purchase to their 1943 confiscation by Nazi officials, marking their later dispersal and post-war fate as well to the best degree known.

The Schloss Collection pilot project has allowed the development and design of an innovative web application that uses principles of digital humanities to link information related to the objects, creating greater context for understanding the depth and breadth of the Nazi-theft of Jewish property. An additional benefit of the event-based approach is to create a broader historical understanding of events. The project includes a digital online information website that combines the object listing, event-based timelines, information on the cultural plunder and its victims, as well as educational materials.

The pilot project fosters a framework for a sophisticated digitization process, depicting a complex web of links amongst the collectors, the perpetrators, the dealers, the institutions, and the locations related to the collection and its theft. The subsets of categories used to classify the datasets culled from the documents will later form the foundation of the comprehensive JDCRP data platform on Nazi-looted art. The central platform will hold source material located in archives in numerous countries, providing search features that will enable users to cross-reference various archives from a central website.

The initial phase of the pilot project was completed in July 2021. The demo can be visited at: https://pilot-demo.jdcrp.org/

Access the pilot project research data on Wikibase https://wbdev.jdcrp-research.eu/wiki/Main_Page.

Project Team

Ashley Argüello Blaison
Communications

Avishag Ben-Yosef
Project Manager, JDCRP Pilot Project

Simone Kogge
Finance

Marc Masurovsky
Academic Director, JDCRP Pilot Project

Lena Ringleb
Senior Strategic Director

ARCHIVE ADVISORY GROUP

Marisa Bourgoin
Head of Reference Services, AAA, Smithsonian, U.S.

Sebastien Chauffour
Conservateur chargé des archives de la Récuperation artistique, direction des archives du ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères, France

Peggy Frankston
Independent Archival Researcher, France

Dr. Stefanie Jost
Archive Director, Bundesarchiv, Germany

Dr. Clothilde Roullier
Archives Nationales, Ministère de la Culture, France

Filip Strubbe
Archivist, Archives générales du Royaume, Archives de l’État en Belgique

David Zivie
Chef de la Mission de recherche et de restitution des biens culturels spoliés entre 1933 et 1945, Ministère de la Culture, France

Representative of the Expertise Center Restitution, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Netherlands

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY GROUP

Andrew S. DeJesse
Director, Collective Heritage Lab, U.S.

Michael Haley Goldman
Director of the Future projects, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Dr. Stephan Klingen
Leiter der Photothek, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Germany

Michael Levy
Director, Digital Assets Management and Preservation, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Dr. Léa Saint-Raymond
École normale supérieure, France

Dr. Sandra van Ginhoven
Head, Collecting and Provenance, Getty Research Institute, U.S.

Reinier van ‘t Zelfde
Information Architect, RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History

Dr. Ruth von dem Bussche
Independent Researcher, Germany

Mag. Leonhard Weidinger *
Provenance Researcher, Austria

Representative of the Expertise Center Restitution, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Netherlands

ART HISTORY, PROVENANCE RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS ADVISORY GROUP

Lamia Arnaout-Le Garrec
Fonctionnaire à la retraite du Ministère de l’Intérieur, direction de la Police Judiciaire, service Office Central de lutte contre le trafic des Biens Culturels, spécialiste de la collection Schloss, France

PD Dr. Christian Fuhrmeister
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Germany

Dr. Willi Korte
JD, Independent Senior Provenance Researcher, U.S.

Dr. Carolin Lange
Senior Provenance Researcher, Landesstelle für die nichtstaatlichen Museen in Bayern, Germany; Board Member, Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.

Nathalie Neumann
Provenance Researcher, Germany/France

Judith Niessen
Head of Collections, RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History

Alain Prévet
Chargé de recherche, Mission de recherche et de restitution des biens culturels spoliés entre 1933 et 1945, Ministère de la Culture, France

Dr. Victoria Reed
Sadler Curator for Provenance, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, U.S.

Prof. Dr. Lynn Rother
Lichtenberg-Professor for Provenance Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Leuphana University, Germany

Representative of the Expertise Center Restitution, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Netherlands

* deceased