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Spoliation reports

This institution also provides a list of works with incomplete provenance during the period 1933-1945.

ROYAL ARMOURIES

Royal Armouries Museum
Armouries Drive
LEEDS LS10 1LT

Contact for all enquiries about Holocaust or WWII Spoliation:
Graeme Rimer, Head of Curatorial Services,
Fax 0113-220-1999

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION

The national collection of arms and armour. Specific strengths include: European personal weapons and armour from the Middle Ages to the present day; oriental arms and armour from North Africa, Asia and the Indian sub-continent; associated two-dimensional art; material relating to the history of the Tower; and an associated library and archive. Collections consists of approximately 85,000 items.

1. OVERALL PLANS

A. Areas which could contain looted items
It is thought that very little of the collection is likely to have been the subject of spoliation.

B. Areas excluded and why
Very large numbers of items are excluded, either because of their provenance or because of their more functional or non-unique nature. These are unlikely suggests that very little is likely to have been of interest to or collected by either the Nazis or European art collectors. However in the course of cataloguing, the provenance of all items will be checked..

C. Target areas and timetable for research
The museum focused on 4,372 items which were acquired between 1945 - 1999 and were made before 1933. Preliminary, desk checks on all of these objects should be complete by the end of 2000. Full investigation of all 4,372 objects will be complete by the end of 2010, in line with the overall Royal Armouries cataloguing plan.

Collections are being checked in the following order:-

2. RESEARCH CARRIED OUT OR BEING CARRIED OUT IN TARGET AREAS.

A. Process and sources for initial checks from information readily to hand
The museum will be continuing to check provenances on its computer records, in older typed inventories, and in inventory and correspondence files.

B. Description of checks being carried out beyond desk research
The museum will continue to check sales catalogues, archives and other published sources for possible information.

3. INFORMATION REGARDING PROGRESS IN TARGET AREA

A. No. of items in target area
4,372 - of which the museum has made an initial check on 239 objects within the collection of paintings and other two-dimensional art objects.

B. No. of items where provenance has been tested satisfactorily
304

C No. of items where checks on provenance is still being made from internal sources and information readily to hand
4068

D No. of items for which initial research can be taken no further and additional information is being sought from external sources
This will only be known once the 'desk' checks have been completed, i.e. by the end of the year 2000.

4. INFORMATION ON MAKING GENERAL ENQUIRIES OR ABOUT COLLECTIONS

A. Contact for all enquiries about Holocaust or WWII Spoliation
Graeme Rimer, Head of Curatorial Services, Fax 0113-220-1999

B. Details of Published catalogues and how to get access to them
None although there are plans, ultimately, to make the Museum's collection catalogues available on the internet.

C. Public Record and Archives
There are important collections of notes and research material compiled by various arms and armour scholars. These include Sir James Mann, Baron de Cosson, Viscount Dillon, Sir Rusch Meyrick, Charles ffoulkes, H R Robinson, Gerald Mungeam, JFR Winsbury, Seymour Wilkinson, Wentworth Day, Noel Corry, RA Lidstone, Rolf H Muller, Bertha Collin, Richard Williams, Howard Blackmore and John Tofts White.

There are also records relating to the Board of Ordnance, The gunmakers, Thomas Bland and Sons, and the swordmakers, Wilkinson Sword.

Archives and Public Record Services

1. Opening Hours
The Archives Reading Room is open from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm, Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) and is available by appointment only.

2. Enquiries
An enquiry service is available to members of the public during opening hours and requests for information can be made by telephone, by letter/fax or by e-mail. However, these enquiries can take some time to complete and request involving excessive staff time will be subject to a service charge. If this is the case you will be warned before the work is undertaken.

3. Photocopying Service
A photocopying service is available, but there may be restrictions on copying material of a rare or antiquarian nature.

4. Photographic Services
Black and white photographs and colour transparencies may be purchased for private research or for publication, but all such requests are subject to the Terms and Conditions Governing the Reproduction and Photography of Objects in the Royal Armouries, copies of which can be obtained from the library. Duplicate prints and transparencies are normally ready within 14 to 28 days. The museum is unable to undertake new photography for external clients.

Contact details
The Library
Royal Armouries
Armouries Drive
Leeds
LS10 1LT

Tel: + 44 (0) 113 220 1832
Fax: + 44 (0) 113 220 1935
E-mail: enquiries@armouries.org.uk

D. How to make enquiries about collections
General information about the dept. of Curatorial Services may be obtained from Dawn Joliffe, Curatorial Administrator. Specific collections-related enquiries should be addressed to Graeme Rimer, Head of Curatorial Services. Tel 0113-220-1966. Fax 0113-220-1871.

E. Press office contact
Nicholas Boole Tel 0113-220-1948

F. Address of institution
Royal Armouries Museum
Armouries Drive
LEEDS LS10 1LT

G. Website
http://www.armouries.org.uk