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 from various German and international auctioneers.
Within the scope of the project “Art – Auctions – Provenances. The German Art Trade as Reflected in Auction Catalogues from 1901 to 1929“, which was launched on the 1st March 2013, auction catalogues published between 1901 and 1929 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are for the first time being identified. An index of all catalogues will form the basis for further quantitative evaluation, for digitization as well as for making them available online free of charge. The auctions catalogues are the foundation for research on art-trade in the first third of the 20th century, on queries regarding collectors, on the development of taste as well as on single artists and genres. Moreover, they provide an ideal tool for research on provenances. The auction catalogues are scattered over numerous art and museum libraries.
Refined search functions including a full text search have improved the accessibility to material which up until now has been difficult to access. The Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin is a partner in this project which is financially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a period of three years.
Within the international cooperation project “German Sales 1930-1945. Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy”, which was completed at the end of February 2013, already over 3.000 auction catalogues published between 1930 and 1945 in Germany, Switzerland and Austria have been indexed, digitized and made available online. OCR processing has provided searchable full texts, which have been integrated into the Getty Provenance Index®. Further information can be found on arthistoricum.net.
The Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin as well as the Getty Research Institute were partners in this project.
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German Sales 1930-1945. Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy
Auction catalogues by: Auction houses ⋅ collectors
Further information:
- Kunstpreis-Verzeichnis 1939-1942
- Preisberichte aus der "Weltkunst" (1930-1944)
- 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)
- Heidelberg University Library is a partner of the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property
Questions, suggestions and criticism to 
Dr. Maria Effinger
