Art Provenance and Claims Research Project

Descriptive List of Key Records

U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA)

(a)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Monuments & Fine Arts Branch, Claims & Receipts of Property, Monuments & Fine Arts of Various Countries, 1932-50. (Entry 1995)

Description: Consists of individual claims as well as information on locations, such as the looted art depot found in the salt mines at Alt-Ausee. Many of the individual claims are identical to claims found in the Reparations and Restitutions Branch documents. The folders that contain these claims and reports are numbered in an indiscernible manner. Therefore, a folder list is provided in Appendix B of M1927. There is an inventory of such claims at the beginning of the box.

This series is available on NARA Microfilm Publication M1927, Rolls 2-9.

(b)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Monuments & Fine Arts Branch, Monuments & Fine Arts Lists, Receipts & Reports of Objects for Restitution to Ownership, 1945-50. (Entry 1996)

Description: Consists of information on specific collections and art depots discovered in Austria, as well as random reports, letters, and circulars. The folders are arranged numerically and are listed in Appendix C of M1927.

This series is available on NARA Microfilm Publication M1927, Rolls 10-14.

(c)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Property Control Branch, Restitution Claims & Reports on Property Under Control, 1945 -1951. (Entry 2016)

Description: Consists of correspondence, accounting ledgers, property registers and notices related to the administration and release of property under the control of the Property Control Section. Items include appointment (and termination of appointment) of property administrators, notices releasing property to individuals or organizations. Also includes receipts, registers of claims. Boxes 1-3 are arranged by field office (mostly Salzburg) thereunder by property serial number. See box 4 for records on cultural property arranged by type of record (e.g., receipts, pending claims), thereunder chronologically. A folder list for box 4 is attached.

Volume: 4 FRC cartons - 4 cu. ft. - [Box 4 contains mostly art-related records.]

Location: 390/53/21/06-07, boxes 1-4

Restitution Claims & Reports Under Control, 1945 -1951
Folder Title List

Miscel. - Claims, 1948-1950
Austrian National Bank, 1946-1950 [Includes information on gold coins]
v. Ribbentrop - Property - S 3.6003 SA, 1945-1950 [Includes cultural property inventory]
Register of Claims Concerning: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England & France. [Includes cultural property claims.]
Pending Claims: France (27-2-47-16-11-49), Germany (10-1-46 - 27-4-49), Greece [Includes cultural property claims. French section of report includes an inventory of art looted from France that lists owners and.]
Register of Claims Concerning: Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Roumania, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, U.S.A.,
Yugoslavia, Linz, Austria. [Includes cultural property claims.]
Landeshypothekenanstalt, 4-12-46 - 9-6-50.
Receipts II.. 408-26: Czechoslovakia, Finnland, France, Germany, 1946-1951.
Receipts I/B. 408-25: General, Archieves, Shipments - F. Lauffen - Vienna Museum Collections, Shipments - F. Alt Aussee Mine, 1946-1948.
Monuments & Fine Arts: (Warehouse, Warsberg-Villa, NAAF-Inventory, Custodians). Property Under Control, 1940-1951.
Receipts I/A 408-25: Austria, 1946-1951. [Includes cultural property information.]
Welz Collection 408-20, 1940-1951 [Includes cultural property information.]
Klessheim - Castle 408-21, 1945-48. [Includes cultural property information.]

(d)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Records of the Property Control Branch, Correspondence and Related Records (P Files) Regarding Pending Claims, 1945-50 (Entry 2006).

Description:: Property Control Branch correspondence regarding pending claims for property of all types not separated by category. Arranged numerically by file number. Volume 5 [of 7] in Room 2000 research consultation room contains a list of file numbers and corresponding names and property descriptions. This list contains approximately 1,560 entries.

Volume: 24 letter sized archives boxes (9.792 cu. ft.).

Location: 390/53/19/04-07, boxes 1-24

(e)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Records of the Property Control Branch, Correspondence Relating to Claims and Queries, 1945-1950 (Entry 2007).

Description: Correspondence regarding claims and the status of efforts to resolve them. Arranged by alphabetically coded claim numbers beginning with one of the following letters: A, B, F, M, O, R, S, T, or V. Volume 5 [of 7] of the USACA finding aid in NARA (College Park, MD) Room 2000 contains a box/folder list that contains file numbers and corresponding names.

Volume: 31 letter-sized archives boxes (12.648 cu. ft.).

Location: 390/53/19/07-390/53/20/04, boxes 1-31

(f)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Records of the Property Control Branch, Reports on Property Control and Restitution Claims, 1945-1951 (Entry 2013).

Description: Consists of correspondence and reports from the Linz field office regarding restitution claims, the release and control of property, and business enterprises. Arranged by subject, thereunder chronologically. See attached folder list.

Volume: 1 FRC container.

Location: 390/53/21/04, box 1

Reports on Property Control and Restitution Claims, 1945-1951 (Entry 123)
Folder Title List

Restitution Claims & Release of Property: 2-9-48 - 30-12-48.
Monthly & Weekly Reports on Business Enterprises: 12-3-47 - 29-11-49.
Release & Control of Properties: 22-4-46 - 31-7-46.
Release & Control of Properties: 3-1-46 - 20-4-46.
Monthly Report of Real Properties under Control: 29-5-46 - 14-7-48.
Monthly Report of Real Properties under Control: 16-9-46 - 23-11-49
Property Control: 5-8-46 - 15-10-46.
Property Control: 17-10-46 - 4-3-47.
Restitution Claims, Correspondence, Etc.: 5-11-45 - 21-8-46.

(g)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Records of the Property Control Branch, Claims - Upper Austria, 1945-1951 (Entry 2014).

Description: Consists of reports, administrative correspondence, and claims files. General subject files include Restitution, Briefing Notes, and Monthly Reports, each arranged chronologically. Claims files are arranged in two manners. Box 3 contains claims arranged by filing country and are numbered accordingly (e.g., French Claim No. ___ ).

Other claims are arranged by a serial number linked to the city/town in which the property is/was located. For example, serial number 07.0238 Li was assigned to R. Pirngruber's business - Buch-Kunst-und Musikalienhandlung, Linz. These files typically include a property register, which provides the following information: property description; valuation; reason property was taken under control (e.g., Nazi party membership of owner); condition; particulars of managers, custodians, etc. appointed and removed; details of occupancy or use; particulars of claimants to property other than registered owner; insurance cover; and details of known liabilities.

Box 5 includes declarations by owners of property in Nazi occupied countries. This box also contains the folder, Inventory Sheets - Fine Arts.

These records are physically arranged according to the bundles into which they were put before storage. This "bundle" system does not seem to correspond to the intellectual arrangement of the records.

Volume: 5 FRC cartons (5 cu. ft.).

Location: 390/53/21/04-05, boxes 1-5

(h)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Records of the Property Control Branch, Claims and Restitution Reports on Property Administered by the Military Government, 1939-1950 (Entry 2015).

Description: These records of the Salzburg Field office identified by property serial number. They are physically arranged according to the bundles into which they were put for storage. This "bundle" system does not seem to correspond to the intellectual arrangement of the records.

Topics include the appointment and/or dismissal of property administrators, reports on the condition or use of property, and accounting statements.

Volume: 2 FRC cartons (2 cu. ft.).

Location: 390/53/21/06, boxes 1-2

(i)
Record Group & Series: Record Group 260, Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA), Reparations and Restitution Branch, Records Relating to Claims, 1945-1950 (Entry 1992).

Description: Consists of correspondence, receipts, and lists regarding claims. The files are of varying degrees of detail. Some contain simply a list of the property claimed. Others contain extensive correspondence and inventories. Dutch Claim 65, for example, falls somewhere in between the two. It contains correspondence and a List of Dutch Properties from the Central Collecting Point, Munich on which is found an entry for a Van Goyen painting (Castle and the River) with a "presumed owner" and history. Records are arranged by country, thereunder by claim number. At the end of each country's claims there are folder(s) with lists of claims and receipts. The Dutch section contains a folder titled Dutch Art Treasures (Roll 28); the French contains folders titled French Art Treasure Correspondence (Roll 50).

This series is available on NARA Microfilm Publication M1926, Rolls 1-140.

NOTE: The final folder for each country contains a claim list that provides information on each claim for that country. Owner, property description, and location information are typical details included. Paper copies of the lists are available in the NARA (College Park, MD) Textual Research Room consulting area.

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