Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project

28/09/2026

A newly launched provenance research tool offers a specialized reverse image search for artworks, allowing researchers to compare photographs of artworks against a database of restitution claims documented by the Commission for the Recovery of Art (CRA), active from 1944-1949.

When a user uploads a picture of an artwork to "Spolia"—the new tool, developed by our partners at the Mission for Research and Restitution of Spoliated Cultural Property (M2RS) in France's Ministry of Culture (Ministère de la Culture)—a reverse image search will scan the CRA photograph collection for instances in which the same work may appear. A match can provide an important lead for provenance research, suggesting the work may be connected with a postwar restitution claim.

An "Explore" function also allows users to describe an artwork using words and retrieve photographs from the database that match the description.

Spolia is currently in beta and available in French, English, and German.

Try it out: https://spolia-m2rs.fr/en/

24/09/2026

Thank you to Diederik Oostdijk and all attendees of yesterday’s JDCRP Reading Room: “Overlevingskunst - The Art of Survival.”

In this clip from the presentation, Oostdijk narrates how persecuted Jewish collector Alfred Schoenlicht fled the Netherlands with funds secured from an art sale administered by persecuted Jewish art dealer Gustav Cramer.

The full presentation is now available online. Watch at the link in our bio.

24/09/2026

Thank you to Diederik Oostdijk and all attendees of yesterday’s JDCRP Reading Room: “Overlevingskunst - The Art of Survival.”

In this clip from the presentation, Oostdijk narrates how persecuted Jewish collector Alfred Schoenlicht fled the Netherlands with funds secured from an art sale administered by persecuted Jewish art dealer Gustav Cramer.

The full presentation is now available online at the JDCRP website: https://jdcrp.org/videos

15/09/2026

Deidre Berger, Chair of JDCRP's Executive Board, spoke last week at a press conference regarding the new exhibition, “From Monet to Picasso: Jewish Art Collectors in Germany,” at Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg. Her remarks introduced JDCRP’s documentation initiative identifying persecuted Jewish collectors, gesturing to how this research can illuminate the scale and impact of the N**i-era art looting in Germany. She also discussed past and contemporary obstacles that have prevented families of German Jewish collectors from reclaiming stolen works.

Read her remarks here:http://jdcrp.org/wp-content/uploads/DB-Remarks-Bucerius-Kunst-Forum.pdf (English translation appears beneath the German text)

The exhibition is on view at Bucerius Kunst Forum until March 29, 2027. We congratulate and thank curators Kathrin Baumstark and Stefan Koldehoff for their important work expanding collective knowledge about the prewar Jewish contribution to European cultural heritage.

Read VOGUE Germany’s coverage of the exhibition here: https://www.vogue.de/artikel/von-monet-bis-picasso-ausstellung-hamburg-juedische-kunstsammler (in German, but most browsers offer automatic translation)

Oft tragisch, immer berührend: Eine Ausstellung im Bucerius Kunst Forum vereint die Schicksale jüdischer Samler:innen mit den Werken, die sie einst besaßen.

09/09/2026

The answer to yesterday's provenance research quiz:

"Moses Praying During the Battle" was painted by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800-1882) and restituted to his grandson, Alfred Oppenheim (1873-1953), in 1951 under U.S. Military Government Law No. 59.

Documentation for this painting is available in Legacy Explorer. Search for "Moses," and filter the Archival Source to "US Military Restitution Property Cards." This painting is the first result.

View documentation of "Moses Praying During the Battle": https://explorer.rjlegacy.org/object/BArch_B_323_591_0131-0132

Moritz Daniel Oppenheim was the first formally trained Jewish artist in Germany. Much of his oeuvre presented scenes from Talmud and historic Jewish life. Four of Oppenheim's artworks are currently documented in Legacy Explorer. View them here: https://explorer.rjlegacy.org/person/ulan~500010295

Alfred Oppenheim was a Jewish painter and collector persecuted during the N**i era. View documentation of works he painted and collected in Legacy Explorer: https://explorer.rjlegacy.org/person/persecuted-artist_Alfred-Oppenheim

09/09/2026

Tomorrow, the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg opens “From Monet to Picasso: Jewish Art Collectors in Germany,” an exhibition that reconstructs histories of fifteen art collections assembled by Jewish collectors in Germany before they were scattered by the cultural plunder and genocide of the N**i era. Approximately 100 artworks from these collections will be on display.

The exhibition’s accompanying catalogue features an essay by JDCRP’s Deidre Berger and Anne Uhrlandt. Their contribution, “The Gap that Remains: (Im)possibilities for Jewish Collectors in Germany after the Holocaust,” explores the challenges faced by German-Jewish collectors and their descendants in efforts to recover their collections in the postwar period and contemporary times.

“From Monet to Picasso: Jewish Art Collectors in Germany” opens on the evening of September 10 and will remain on view in Hamburg until March 29, 2027.

Read more about the exhibition: https://www.buceriuskunstforum.de/ausstellungen/von-monet-bis-picasso-juedische-kunstsammlerinnen-in-deutschland

Join the opening event at 19:00 CEST on the evening of September 10: https://www.buceriuskunstforum.de/veranstaltungen/eroeffnung-von-monet-bis-picasso-juedische-kunstsammlerinnen-in-deutschland

08/09/2026

~PROVENANCE RESEARCH QUIZ~

This looted painting of Moses was recovered after the war and restituted by the U.S. Military to its original Jewish owner on March 12, 1951.

Who painted it, and to whom was it restituted?

Write in the comments—and check back tomorrow to see if you were right!

(Hint: You can find all the information you need to solve this quiz on our digital archival platform, Legacy Explorer: https://explorer.rjlegacy.org/)

27/08/2026

JDCRP has added another document set to Legacy Explorer, following this month’s announcement of JDCRP’s new AI-assisted document processing workflow (https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/artificial-intelligence-expands-functionality-jewish-digital-cultural-recovery-projects-provenance-search-tool-1234794876/).

The new set includes 1,813 property cards documenting restitution transfers of objects from U.S. Allied Forces Central Collecting Points to their original Jewish owners, and/or their heirs, according to U.S. Military Government Law No. 59.

Under this law, victims of N**i persecution in the U.S. Zone of occupied Germany could file claims between November 1947 and December 1948 for the restitution of private property that had been stolen from them.

Legacy Explorer makes the full text of these, and other archival documents on the platform, searchable for the first time. If the platform contains multiple archival documents related to the same object, Legacy Explorer connects these records for you.

For example: users can now see documentation of the arrival of Eduard von Grützner’s “Monks Tasting Liquor in a Cellar” at the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point, alongside documentation of its restitution to persecuted Jewish collector Max Brings under Military Government Law No. 59 (https://explorer.rjlegacy.org/object/BArch_B_323_593_0671-0672).

Read about the history of this new collection—including a profile of Alfred and Hedwig Pringsheim, Jewish collectors whose descendants received 115 of their looted objects under this law—on Legacy Explorer: https://explorer.rjlegacy.org/us-military-restitution-cards

Access the collection directly here: https://explorer.rjlegacy.org/search?source=US%20Military%20Restitution%20Property%20Cards

24/08/2026

UPDATE: We are no longer accepting applications for this position. Thank you to all who applied!

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Are you a student interested in provenance research, digital humanities, art history, and/or IT? Apply for the JDCRP's limited-term "Student Reviewer of Digitized Documents" position.

Work remotely on a part-time, flexible schedule to help us grow our digital archival platform, Legacy Explorer.

The position requires data structuring experience and German language skills.

Learn more and apply: https://jdcrp.org/jobs

20/08/2026

Overlevingskunst: The Art of Survival
September 23, 2026
18:00–19:00 CEST / 12:00–13:00 EDT
Zoom registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CAirFB_5SZyAa3xvkxBVzA

In this session of the JDCRP Reading Room, Diederik Oostdijk will present his upcoming book "Overlevingskunst" ("The Art of Survival"), which chronicles the survival journeys of three Dutch Jewish families, each of which managed to escape N**i persecution by parting with valued art objects from their collections. The book traces the fates of the family members and of five works of art that were pivotal to their survival.

"Overlevingskunst" will be published in Dutch on October 15. This JDCRP Reading Room event offers an advance look at the book's contents and an opportunity for English-speaking audiences to learn about research that will otherwise be only available in Dutch.

The presentation will include an opportunity for audience questions.

The JDCRP Reading Room is an online conversation series from the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project (JDCRP) featuring authors whose works deepen our understanding of looted art and Jewish culture.

Register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CAirFB_5SZyAa3xvkxBVzA