• High Bids Win
    Letterpress & Bindery Auction
    Nov. 20 – Dec. 5, 2024
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Book Press 10 1/2× 15 1/4" Platen , 2 1/2" Daylight.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: The Tubbs Mfg Co. wooden-type cabinet 27” w by 37” h by 22” deep.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: G.P.Gordon printing press 7” by 11” with treadle. Needs rollers, trucks, and grippers. Missing roller spring.
    High Bids Win
    Letterpress & Bindery Auction
    Nov. 20 – Dec. 5, 2024
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: D & C Ventris curved wood type 2” tall 5/8” wide.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Wood Type 1 1/4” tall.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Quarter Case with Lead Triangles.
    High Bids Win
    Letterpress & Bindery Auction
    Nov. 20 – Dec. 5, 2024
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Page & Co wood type 1 1/4” tall 1/4” wide.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Awt 578 type hi gauge.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Quarter Case with Lead Penline Flourishes.
    High Bids Win
    Letterpress & Bindery Auction
    Nov. 20 – Dec. 5, 2024
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Quarter Case with Lead Penline Flourishes.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Quarter Case with Lead Cents and Pound Signs.
    High Bids Win, Nov. 20 – Dec. 5: Wooden type cabinet 27” w by 19” d by 38” h.
  • ALDE
    Bibliothèque médicale Arthur Tatossian
    December 11, 2024
    ALDE, Dec. 11: ALBINUS (BERNHARD SIEGFIED). Tabulæ Sceleti et Musculorum corporis humanum, Londres, 1749. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: BIDLOO (GOVARD). Anatomia humani corporis. Centum et quinque tabulis per artificiosiss. G. de Lairesse..., Amsterdam, 1685.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: BOURGERY (JEAN-MARC) – JACOB (NICOLAS-HENRI). Traité complet de l’anatomie de l’Homme comprenant la médecine opératoire, Paris, 1832. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE
    Bibliothèque médicale Arthur Tatossian
    December 11, 2024
    ALDE, Dec. 11: CALDANI (LEOPOLDO MARCANTONIO ET FLORIANO). Icones anatomicae, Venice, 1801-14. €5,000 to €6,000.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: CARSWELL (ROBERT). Pathological Anatomy. Illustrations of the elementary forms of disease, London, 1838. €5,000 to €6,000.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: CASSERIUS (JULIUS) [GIULIO CASSERIO]. De vocis auditusq. organis historia anatomica singulari fide methodo ac industria concinnata tractatis duobus explicate, Ferrara, 1600-1601. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE
    Bibliothèque médicale Arthur Tatossian
    December 11, 2024
    ALDE, Dec. 11: ESTIENNE (CHARLES). De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres, Paris, 1545. €8,000 to €10,000.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: GAMELIN (JACQUES). Nouveau Recueil d'Ostéologie et de Myologie dessiné d'après nature... pour l’utilité des sciences et des arts, divisé en deux parties, Toulouse, 1779. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: ROESSLIN (EUCHER). Des divers travaux et enfantemens des femmes et par quel moyen l'on doit survenir aux accidens…, Paris, 1536. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE
    Bibliothèque médicale Arthur Tatossian
    December 11, 2024
    ALDE, Dec. 11: RUYSCH (FREDERICK). Thesaurus anatomicus - Anatomisch Cabinet, Amsterdam, 1701-1714. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: VALVERDE (JUAN DE). Anatome corporis humani. Nunc primum a Michaele Michaele Columbo latine reddita, et additis novis aliquot tabulis exornata, Venetiis, 1589. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Dec. 11: VESALIUS (ANDREAS). De humani Corporis Fabrica libri septem, Venetiis, 1568. €3,000 to €4,000.
  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 11,135 USD
    Sotheby’s: Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845. 33,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Leo Tolstoy, Clara Bow. War and Peace, 1886. 22,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1902. 7,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and Others, 1920-1941. 24,180 USD
  • Doyle, Dec. 5: Minas Avetisian (1928-1975). Rest, 1973. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973). Yawning Tiger, conceived 1917. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Robert M. Kulicke (1924-2007). Full-Blown Red and White Roses in a Glass Vase, 1982. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). L’ATELIER DE CANNES (Bloch 794; Mourlot 279). The cover for Ces Peintres Nos Amis, vol. II. $1,000 to $1,500.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: LeRoy Neiman (1921-2012). THE BEACH AT CANNES, 1979. $1,200 to $1,800.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Richard Avendon, the suite of eleven signed portraits from the Avedon/Paris portfolio. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). Flowers in Vase, 1985. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Edward Weston (1886-1958). Nude, 1936. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Edward Weston (1886-1958). Juniper, High Sierra, 1937.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Steven J. Levn (b. 1964). Plumage II, 2011. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 5: Steven Meisel (b. 1954). Madonna, Miami, (from Sex), 1992. $6,000 to $9,000.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - February - 2023 Issue

Books Looted 80 Years Ago Returned

Heinrich Klang.

Heinrich Klang.

It is always good news when books, stolen long ago, are finally returned to their rightful owners. A few weeks back, four such books were returned 80 years after they were looted. However, it highlights just how massive the problem is and how hard it is to make significant progress, particularly when the thefts occurred long ago.

 

These four books were looted from an Austrian Jewish judge and associate professor by Nazis after Germany annexed Austria in 1938. They belonged to Dr. Heinrich Klang, the judge and instructor, having inherited them from his father in 1914. Klang had his teaching license revoked by the Nazis and was forced to retire. He had little choice but to sell his books to the notorious Nazi bookseller, the Antiquarian and Export Bookstore of Alfred Wolf in Vienna.

 

Wolf specialized in selling books looted from people sent to concentration camps. He had worked for Hans Peter Kraus, a dealer in Vienna. After the annexation, Wolf denounced Kraus, who was Jewish, to authorities, leading to his deportation to the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald. Wolf took over his shop and inventory. After eight months in concentration camps, Kraus was released on the condition he leave the country (this was 1939 before the beginning of the mass exterminations in the camps). He came to America, his books left behind, settled in New York, again started a bookselling business, and became one of the most important booksellers of the twentieth century, H. P. Kraus.

 

In an earlier case, the Art Restitution Advisory Board quoted Klang as saying, “So as not to suddenly find myself in an impossible position, I began slowly to liquidate my possessions. The most difficult was to part with my library, which my father had already started compiling...” In 1942, he was sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Around 33,000 people died there but Dr. Klang was not one of them. He survived the war, returning to Vienna in 1945. He died in 1954 but never reclaimed his books, which would have been beyond difficult at that time. Authorities had little interest and the books were dispersed to parts unknown.

 

These books were finally located in the Bremen State and University Library in Germany. They were discovered as part of the Looted Cultural Property project. Volker Cirsovius examined library acquisitions made between 1933-1948. These books contained ownership labels of James Klang, Heinrich Klang's father who bequeathed them to his son. Eight libraries in Austria and Germany have banded together to conduct this research and return as many books as possible to their rightful owners.

 

While it is a noble task, attempting to right terrible wrongs, the reality is that success here is likely to be very limited compared to the number of books looted by the Nazis. In 2008, Der Spiegel published an article on the process. At the time, they said there were hundreds of thousands of such books, perhaps a million. In 2019, the New York Times also described the situation. They said in the previous 10 years around 30,000 books had been returned to owners, heirs and institutions. However, the Times also estimated there could be 3.5 million stolen books. Four at a time will hardly make a dent in the problem. A great many of these books are hiding in plain sight, in German libraries. Some were taken after the war by the Soviets. Now we learn that the Russians are at it again in Ukraine. When Kherson was liberated recently, Ukrainians discovered valuable books and art missing from their libraries and museums.

 

Der Spiegel said in 2008 that many libraries had shown little interest in dealing with the issue. When you have possessed someone else's property for a long time, you come to think of it as your own. However, even if there is interest, the task is still daunting. Libraries are often understaffed, making additional responsibilities difficult. Many books do not have ownership identifying markings, or perhaps once did but they were removed. Even if they do, identifying the person of that name can be difficult, and if there is an address, the person or family is unlikely still to be there. A great many of the owners were murdered by the Nazis, and of those who did survive the concentration camps, very few would still be alive today. That requires tracking down the heirs, but identifying and locating them is also very difficult. Survivors and heirs of German and other European Jews often left for other countries. They could be anywhere, scattered in different places, and trying to identify all of them and get them to agree on what to do with the books presents additional challenges. The efforts are worthy and justice is always the right ending, but accomplishing the return of millions of books to rightful owners 80 years later is virtually impossible. Even returning a small percentage is difficult, but justice requires every effort be made.

 

In the case of Dr. Klang's books, the heirs agreed to have the books turned over to a private individual. That person will, in turn, give them to the Supreme Court of Vienna.


Posted On: 2023-02-16 19:28
User Name: Bkwoman

The looting was appalling, but the burning of books was even worse.


Rare Book Monthly

  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    H. Schedel, Liber chronicarum, 1493. Est: € 25,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    P. O. Runge, Farben-Kugel, 1810. Est: € 8,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    W. Kandinsky, Klänge, 1913. Est: € 20,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    W. Burley, De vita et moribus philosophorum, 1473. Est: € 4,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    M. B. Valentini, Viridarium reformatum seu regnum vegetabile, 1719. Est: € 12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    PAN, 10 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: € 15,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    J. de Gaddesden, Rosa anglica practica medicinae, 1492. Est: € 12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    M. Merian, Todten-Tanz, 1649. Est: € 5,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    D. Hammett, Red harvest, 1929. Est: € 11,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    Book of hours, Horae B. M. V., 1503. Est: € 9,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    J. Miller, Illustratio systematis sexualis Linneai, 1792. Est: € 8,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    F. Hundertwasser, Regentag – Look at it on a rainy day, 1972. Est: € 8,000
  • Gonnelli:
    Auction 55
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    November 26st 2024
    Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, 23 animal plances,1641. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, Boar Hunt, 1654. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli: Crispijn Van de Passe, The seven Arts, 1637. Starting price 600€
    Gonnelli: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, La Maschera è cagion di molti mali, 1688. Starting price 320€
    Gonnelli: Biribissor’s game, 1804-15. Starting price 2800€
    Gonnelli: Nicolas II de Larmessin, Habitats,1700. Starting price 320€
    Gonnelli: Miniature “O”, 1400. Starting price 1800€
    Gonnelli: Jan Van der Straet, Hunt scenes, 1596. Starting Price 140€
    Gonnelli: Massimino Baseggio, Costantinople, 1787. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli: Kawanabe Kyosai, Erotic scene lighten up by a candle, 1860. Starting price 380€
    Gonnelli: Duck shaped dropper, 1670. Starting price 800€
  • Doyle, Dec. 6: An extensive archive of Raymond Chandler’s unpublished drafts of fantasy stories. $60,000 to $80,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: RAND, AYN. Single page from Ayn Rand’s handwritten first draft of her influential final novel Atlas Shrugged. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: Ernest Hemingway’s first book with interesting provenance. Three Stories & Ten Poems. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: Hemingway’s second book, one of 170 copies. In Our Time. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: A finely colored example of Visscher’s double hemisphere world map, with a figured border. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: Raymond Chandler’s Olivetti Studio 44 Typewriter. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: Antonio Ordóñez's “Suit of Lights” owned by Ernest Hemingway. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: A remarkable Truman archive featuring an inscribed beam from the White House construction. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: The fourth edition of Audubon’s The Birds of America. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: The original typed manuscript for Chandler’s only opera. The Princess and the Pedlar: An Entirely Original Comic Opera. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: A splendidly illustrated treatise on ancient Peru and its Incan civilization. $7,000 to $10,000.
    Doyle, Dec. 6: A superb copy of Claude Lorrain’s Liber Veritatis from Longleat House. $5,000 to $8,000.

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