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Der Berliner Kunstmarkt: An Analysis of the Berlin Art Market, 1930–1945

The authors investigate Berlin’s art auction market as it developed between 1930 and 1945. By analyzing Berlin’s auction data from the Getty Research Institute’s recently published database of German auction sales catalogs dating from 1930 to 1945, this paper explores the Third Reich’s influence on the Berlin fine art auction market. The analysis is separated into two main categories: the overall market and the auction houses, in particular a close examination of the auction houses Graupe and Lange. Key findings include the inverse relationship between median selling price and the number of paintings sold over several years, indicating that paintings sold in Berlin during this time functioned more like normal goods rather than luxury items; the interconnected relationship between the ownership and operations of many auction houses, including Graupe’s transition to Lange after fleeing from anti-Semitism in Berlin; and the evidence that stolen artwork was auctioned for sale on several occasions, with most of the proceeds benefitting Hitler’s Nazi regime. [This article is a revision of the paper that won the 2018 Sotheby’s Institute of Art Research Award. The award recognizes excellence in a student paper or digital art history project on a topic relevant to collecting or the art market. This paper was presented as part of the “New Voices in the Profession” panel at the ARLIS/NA conference held in New York, New York, in February 2018.]