Searchable database of looted art

The Information Database of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe's contains information and documentation from forty nine countries, including laws and policies, reports and publications, archival records and resources, current cases and relevant websites.

The Object Database contains details of over 25,000 objects of all kinds – paintings, drawings, antiquities, Judaica, etc – looted, missing and/or identified from over fifteen countries.

All images on the site are published under fair use conditions for the purpose of criticism and research.

For a list of Essential Website Links, showing all key research sites and resources,click here. For Bibliographies on all aspects of looted art, the art trade, archives and restitution, click here.

Cornelius Gurlitt dealing in Nazi-looted art

The Persistent Crime of Nazi-Looted Art 

 

The discovery of more than 1,500 artworks in a flat in Munich serves as an inconvenient reminder of one of the unresolved wrongs of the Third Reich.

The discovery, when it was made, came entirely by chance. On September 22, 2010, a stooped, white-haired man in his late 70s taking an evening train from Zurich to Munich was asked by customs officers why he was crossing the Swiss border. The gentleman, Cornelius Gurlitt, responded with such nervousness that he triggered the officers’ suspicions. When they searched his person, they found an envelope he was carrying that contained 18 brand-new 500-Euro notes—9,000 Euros in total.

The cash itself wasn’t a crime; Gurlitt had reportedly visited Switzerland to sell a picture to a gallery in Bern. But the strangeness of the situation led to further investigation of Gurlitt’s finances, and a search warrant for his Munich apartment that in February 2012 uncovered one of the most extraordinary stashes of art since the end of World War II. Inside a small flat in a boxy white building, hidden in filing cabinets and suitcases, investigators found more than 1,500 works by artists including Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Liebermann, Chagall, Durer, and Delacroix. The German authorities were investigating Gurlitt for tax evasion; what they found instead was an amassment of art that was immediately, incontrovertibly suspicious.

Source: The Atlantic

Guy Stair Sainty dealing in Nazi-looted art

The 17th-century painting, “The Rape of Tamar,” was legitimately owned by a Jewish art dealer, Siegfried Aram. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York has announced it will alter the artwork’s provenance to reflect his ownership. 

The evidence was uncorked by German researcher Joachim Peter who discovered that Aram, who passed away in 1978, attempted to reclaim his painting for more than a decade after the Holocaust. Court records show that Aram alleged that his neighbor Oskar Sommer stole the painting after he sold his house to Sommer. 

The Met bought the painting in an auction in 1984 via Guy Stair Sainty as he confessed in the New York Times recently. The provenance notes that the painting was bought by Aram in Britain in the mid-1920s until it was passed down “to Sommer as a contested part of his purchase of Aram’s villa in Schapbach, Germany.”. Sainty's 2017 provenance was false.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder has been a fierce advocate and leader of the restitution movement for Nazi-looted art. In June of 2016, President Lauder testified in front of a Senate committee about ensuring Holocaust victims’ rights to recover art confiscated from them during the Holocaust, calling the theft “probably the greatest in history,” and referring to the stolen art as "the final prisoners of World War II.”

Later that month, President Lauder voiced his displeasure with the results of an investigation alleging that the German state of Bavaria sold over 10,000 Nazi-looted art to high-ranking Nazi officials, rather than returning the art to its rightful Jewish owners, describing the allegations as “absolutely shocking” and “a great slap in the face to the victims of the Holocaust and their families.” President Lauder called for the efforts to be “made to ensure that the families of the rightful heirs to be fully compensated or receive full restitution of the property.”

Art and cultural property crime—which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines—is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses in the billions of dollars annually.

To recover these precious pieces—and to bring these criminals to justice—the FBI has a dedicated Art Crime Team of 20 special agents, supported by DOJ trial attorneys for prosecutions. The Bureau also runs the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural properties for the use of law enforcement agencies across the world.

Stair Sainty selling a controversial Degas sculpture

The model for Degas' sculpture 'Little Dancer' was ballet student Marie Van Goethem. Degas first made a wax of her in the nude. Then, aiming for a naturalistic effect, he dressed it in clothing made of real fabrics. When the wax sculpture was first exhibited, contemporaries were shocked by the unprecedented realism of the piece. But they were also moved by the work’s representation of the pain and stress of ballet training endured by a barely adolescent girl. After Degas’ death, his heirs decided to make bronze casts of the wax original (around 1922).

In 2017, Stair Sainty claimed that a bronze cast of the original – as first exhibited at the impressionist exhibition in Paris, 1881 – has 'resurfaced'. Sainty's dancer looks more childlike and less elegant than the original sculpture in the Tate Museum. 

However, Edgar Degas never worked exclusively in wax, much less cast in bronze. Additionally, Edgar Degas expressly stated his intentions during his lifetime that he did -not- want to cast in bronze. Furthermore, Edgar Degas never signed his original lifetime mixed-media sculptures. More details can be obtained here. 

In the past, Sainty has falsely accused a Dutch colleague of selling fake (resurfaced) art. He made the same accusations towards Sotheby's. This strategy is often applied by conmen as a cover-up for their own crimes. 

What is highly alarming, is the fact that Sainty's Little Dancer is less elegant than the original sculpture. Often forgers will go to great lengths to reproduce the materials and processes, or the appearance, of the appropriate historical period. Manufacturing processes leave telltale marks, such as casting where there may be some ‘flash’ or extra metal as a result of the molten material flowing into a small gap between moulds. 

We also noted that around the time of Sainty's 'discovery', the Wikipedia article regarding the 'Little Dancer' has been modified by Gregory Hedberg, who endorses Sainty's discovery. This is also suspicious. 

At the moment, we are actively investigation these issues. 

Profile study

I am collecting witness statements about Sainty. Considering the detailed account, the statements below have to come from insiders and their statements should therefore be regarded as highly reliable.

According to the Sainty-genealogy, that I downloaded from Wikipedia, Guy Stair Sainty is the son of Christopher Lawrence Sainty. Sainty grew up in the working class streets of Swallowfield Slough Road, Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England. His family lived in the Sewage Works, Old Windsor, Berkshire. Sainty's father made money as a ragpicker by buying "antiques" in England and selling these in the United States. The profile statements reveal Sainty's true identity.

On the internet, I found the following witness statement under the pseudonym "snakecharmer007" about Guy Stair Sainty. 

MR GUY STAIR SAINTY will not remember me, but I do remember him as a self important pompous young man of humble origin, yet desperate to climb the social ladder from the very bottom to the very top. 

He showed signs of delusions of grandeur, much to the amusement of fellow onlookers in SMOM who (though many have since died) still peer down the ladder at him, stuck someway below the rungs of the first quarter! That is where he will remain, he will certainly never be admitted to SMOM (the scandal of the headed paper was enough alone!). Some of the British Association SMOM paper disappeared. On paper a statement appeared saying that SMOM did not recognise the Constantinian Order of the Duke of Castro but the Duke is a very senior member of SMOM, with the highest rank of Bailiff Grand Cross of honour and Devotion and the Cross of Profession, of which the only other holder is the King of Spain. 

hbbrown49 made an excellent posting in this forum on Wed, Jun 27 2001 5:37 pm headed Canonising Stair Sainty, Which summed the man up to a tee, at least the young Sainy I had encountered so many years before. He observed ... an arrogant and pompous ass, ill-mannered, a hater and mocker, incapable of argument, ignorant of the wider Christian world, a lover of braying, disliked by others, even members of his own Orders, many of whom sip champagne with him at the reception, but then, fearful of provoking him, leave to snicker quietly in the next room. Sainty'schivalric "friends" keep him at a distance because they know that he is an intolerant scoffer, one who laughs at the efforts of others and who has the gall to taunt his own "friends" when they indulge in Orders he hates. 

Mr Sainty; Mr Stair-Sainty; "Baron" Guy Stair de Carnazet Sainty; "His Excellency" or "Ecc.mo. Sr." "Don"!!! Guy Stair Sainty, as he been variously described, is indeed an expert on false Orders.

He himself founded the absurd Confederation of Christian Chivalry with Fernando Crociani. Crociani's current position as knight of SMOM will not be helped by his links to Mr Sainty or the fact that some time ago, the two of them were associated with diplomas which mysteriouslyappeared bearing the name of Sainy, but elevated to the style of Baron!

Mr Sainty's close associate, Fernando Crociani, like Mr Sainty has been the beneficiary of marriage annulments, in the case of the later, two, annulled by the Sacra Rota. The second to a pianist resulting in considerable scandal, well known in both Rome and in Lazio. Mr Crocianiuses the style of Professor, Count and Noble, but it is not known what the origins of these styles are. It is only known that he is an employee of the "Confcommercio" of Roma, the merchants trade-union. 

Mr Sainty's partner Mr Crociani was admitted in the SMOM, as knight of grace and devotion (100 years of nobility) in 1983. But recently the heraldry commission of the Rome Grand Priorat SMOM began re-examining his nobility evidences after discovering that he - even if his last name is CROCIANI - altered his anagraphical documents, in order to attach his short genealogy to the family named CRUCIANI, which is properly noble. 

Mr Crociani is also linked to the neofascist movement "Ordine Nuovo" http://www.ctv.es/USERS/aje/octubre04.htm on whose website members are seen giving nazi style salutes and seated under posters promoting their counterpart M. le Penn, from France, which is also now Mr Sainty's country of residence. 

At the time of his close collaboration with Mr Crociani, as a young man, Sainty was also known to Luciano Pelliciondi. 

Pelliciondi never married and was never accused of the slightest indiscretion with a woman. Fond of the company of young males, the nineteen year old Sainty appears to have had an intimate enough friendship with Pelliciondi for him to have been invested (and to have accepted) the totally false Order of S. Giorgio in Carinzia. Whilst it is unusual for a boy of this age to be invested in any order, false or otherwise, he nevertheless had qualities (which had been hidden from the rest of us at the time) to impress Pelliciondi sufficiently for him to be granted the rank of Grand Officer. In the International Herald Tribune in the Services section under ARISTOCRAT NOBILITY and Titles, features an advertisement offering to sell titles and nobility. The reply was the name and address of Mr Guy Stair Sainty. How is this? 

The comic Coat of Arms Mr Sainty uses today are not the ones he was born with, they are his own creation. The Granting of arms by the King of Arms of Margud de la Floresta to Mr Sainty is quite impossible. The power to issue arms was restricted to cities or towns, not individuals. If I am not mistaken the Spanish State Council (Supreme Court) said in 1995 that arms could not be issued in this way to private persons. It was ruled that this power never existed and as a consequence these arms cannot be used. 

The arms are quite absurd, they use the mantle of a duke, although I have only seen Mr Sainty falsely elevated to the rank of Count. The arms feature some orders of which Mr Sainty is a low ranking member, none are of the rank of Grand Cross. A strange combination with the ducal mantle. 

Mr Sainty is no stranger to denouncing people but then claiming that he was wrong. Mr Sainty denounced and then grovelled to and fully accepted the silly claim of the so-called MacCarthy Mor, Prince of Desmond. In a letter of 12 June 1997. He stated... I full and unreservedly accept that you have established your right to the title of MacCarthy Mor, and the tradition and style of Prince of Desmond.....with all the surviving rights that such title implies.... I want to make it clear that any sentiments to the contrary that may be attributed to me in any communication bearing my signature or elsewhere do not reflect my true opinion. 

In the Constantinian Order the Grand master is said to be fed up with Sainty and looking for an excuse to dump him. It will not be a shock if he is gone soon, just awaiting the appropriate excuse. 

It is known that Sainty announced the marriage of Don Carlos's son, Prince Don Pedro, without permission and that he made a real scandal when he tried to contact the Prince Antonio in order to manoeuvre the Grand Majestry of the Constantinian Order his way. He was said to have claimed that Don Carlos would renounce everything and cease to be Duke of Calabria. Prince Antonio refused and Don Carlo was said to be enraged by this ungentlemanly plot. 

Mr Sainty describes himself as a scholar, but to the best of my knowledge has, or had no academic qualifications? He needs to be treated with a large pinch of salt. he is a mocker and spiteful individual who actions and words betray the fact that he cannot be taken seriously. 

The limits to which Mr Sainty will go to be near those of rank knows no bounds, even association with the notorious sorceress Carima (well known trickster) and her drunk son is not too much to get close to the King Kigeli of Rwanda-Urundi at the "ballo dei cento e non più cento",http://www.ancestraltraditions.org/ballocento2005/carima.htm

Eyewitness memories, such as these, are often critical sources of information for investigations. In this case, it shows that Sainty might suffer from antisocial personality disorder and what’s called – “unethical thinking.” Sainty will very rarely show any remorse for their actions, or empathy towards others. Sainty’s complete failure to adhere to acceptable social standards coupled with a lack of self-control leads to a life filled with confrontations.