The William Randolph Hearst Archive at Long Island University: A Resource for Provenance Research

Questions concerning the provenance of art objects recorded in the William Randolph Hearst Archive originate from museums, private collectors, academic institutions, and auction houses.1 Recently, two aspects of inquiry have taken on an international focus. First, the “new nationalist movement” in the United Kingdom,2 concerned with the repatriation of architectural salvages from structures such as Gwydir Castle in Wales and Hamilton Palace in Scotland, has spurred new investigations.3 Second, in the midst of a digital project to provide electronic access to Hearst’s archival records through the Artstor Digital Library, a number of objects acquired by Hearst from forced sales during the Nazi Era (1933–1945) have been discovered. The author discusses works from the collections of Rosa and Jacob Oppenheimer, Frau Margarete Oppenheim, and Ottmar Strauss.4 [This article is a revision of a presentation given as part of the session “Common Ground: Provenance Research Agendas in Libraries, Archives and Museums” at the ARLIS/NA conference held in New York, New York in February 2018.]