About NEPIP
From 2003-2024, the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal provided a searchable registry of objects in U.S. museum collections that changed hands in Continental Europe during the Nazi era (1933-1945). In the decades since the portal’s launch, many museums have developed and now maintain their own publicly accessible, searchable, and updatable online collections databases on their websites. These practices, as well as advancements in technology and search engine capabilities, have consequently made NEPIP obsolete and no longer a central registry of the most up-to-date data on relevant objects in U.S. museum collections. NEPIP has since been archived.
Provenance Research Resources
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) offers valuable resources on collections stewardship related to provenance and provenance research.
Unlawful Appropriation of Objects During the Nazi Era
AAM offers these separate standards and best-practice statements regarding a museum’s obligations to the unlawful appropriation of objects during the Nazi era. These statements are promulgated by the field to provide guidance to museums in fulfilling their public trust responsibilities.
Holocaust Claims Processing Office, New York State Banking Department
The Holocaust Claims Processing Office of the New York State Banking Department helps individuals of all backgrounds obtain just resolution for the theft of property during the Holocaust. The Holocaust Claims Processing Office charges no fee to file claims, nor is its service contingent upon a percentage of claimants’ restitution awards.
National Archives and Records Administration, Holocaust-era Assets
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)’s Holocaust-era assets website includes finding aids to key record groups, online access to selected records, information on ordering records on microfilm or reading records in person at NARA’s College Park, MD facility.
Getty Research Institute, Provenance Index Databases
The Provenance Index Databases contain indexed transcriptions of archival documents, sale catalogs, and museum provenance files from all over the world that serve as primary source material for establishing history of ownership.
ICOM Spoliation of Jewish Cultural Property
The UNESCO-International Council of Museums (ICOM) Information Centre put together a file of resources including links to national and international directives for museums concerning the identification and return of looted or stolen Jewish property, and national and international databases of objects which were looted or have disappeared.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Holocaust Memorial Museum provides researchers with information about the collections, scholarly presentations, publications and information about the Holocaust, genocide and antisemitism..
History of NEPIP
In response to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art established at the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, AAM along with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States (PCHA) agreed to develop a central, searchable registry of objects in U.S. museum collections that changed hands in Continental Europe during the Holocaust era (1933-1945). AAM accepted responsibility for establishing the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal and agreed to manage the site for its initial three years, at which point the project would be transferred to an organization better equipped to maintain the portal over time. Despite efforts to identify an organization more equipped to host the portal, AAM was the only organization willing to maintain ownership after the initial three years. Recognizing the importance of the database to provenance research at the time, AAM continued to host the portal well beyond the three-year period, including after all funding support had been expended in 2008. In the decades since the portal’s launch, many museums have developed and now maintain their own publicly accessible, searchable, and updatable online collections databases on their websites. These practices, as well as advancements in technology and search engine capabilities, have consequently made NEPIP obsolete and no longer a central registry of the most up-to-date data on relevant objects in U.S. museum collections. After fifteen years, stakeholders agreed that, given advancements in technology and research since 2003, NEPIP could be archived and a new portal was unnecessary.
At the time of its archiving in July 2024, the portal held records for nearly 30,000 objects from 179 museums—90% of which were added to the portal during its first five years (2003-2008). In the decades since the portal’s launch, many museums have developed and now maintain their own publicly accessible, searchable, and updatable online collections databases on their websites. It has been several years since museums were last able to make additions to the site. Consequently, the site is no longer a central registry of the most up-to-date data on relevant objects in U.S. museum collections.
Major funding for the development and operation of the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal was provided by:
- The Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS)
- Commission for Art Recovery of the World Jewish Congress
- Samuel H. Kress Foundation
- The Getty Foundation
- The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany–Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for Shoah Research, Documentation and Education
- The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Inc.