The Only Known Complete Inventory of Art Labeled "Degenerate" by the Nazis

At the end of January 2014 the Victoria & Albert Museum in London made available online the only known copy of a complete inventory of Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) confiscated by the Nazi regime from public institutions in Germany, mostly during 1937 and 1938. The 2-volume typed list of more than 16,000 artworks was produced by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) circa 1941-42. It seems that the inventory was compiled as a final record after the sales and disposals of the confiscated art had been completed in the summer of 1941. The two volumes provide crucial information concerning provenance, exhibition history, and disposition of each artwork. 

"The inventory consists of 482 pages (including blank pages and a missing page), split into two volumes. The entries are organised alphabetically by city, institution and artist's name. Volume 1 covers the cities Aachen to Görlitz, while Volume 2 covers Göttingen to Zwickau.

"Each page gives the name of the city and museum at the top, followed by two groups of columns containing information about each artwork. The first columns provide a running number, the artist’s surname, the inventory number and a short title. The remaining columns provide additional details, and were evidently added later. The contents include information about the medium and the buyer or dealer (if any), a code indicating the exhibition history or fate of the work, and any payments made in foreign currency and/or Reichsmarks" (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/e/entartete-kunst/, accessed 02-02-2014).

In February 2014 the first volume of the Nazi Degenerate Art Inventory, with an Introduction by Douglas Dodds and Heike Zech, was available at this link; the second volume was available at this link.