Subseries 2: Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., 1911-2011, bulk: 1939-2000

The Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., subseries documents the dealings of the New York City firm from 1939-2000, with occasional files outside of this date range. Files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent or subject and contain correspondence, invoices for sales of artworks, account statements, bills and invoices for services rendered, photographs, inventories, consignment agreements, legal and tax forms, bank transaction records, and printed material. Most correspondence is in English but there is a significant amount of German correspondence, some French, and some Dutch.

The majority of these files are for art collectors and art dealers throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. Art collectors include individuals (Renée de Becker; Hans Cohn; Pierre David-Weill; Richard S. Davis; Henry Ford, II; Eric de Goldschmidt-Rothschild; Siegfried and Lola Kramarsky; Clarice de Rothschild; Charles B. and Jayne Wrightsman) as well as museums (The Art Institute of Chicago; Cleveland Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts; Fogg Art Museum; The J. Paul Getty Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Toledo Museum of Art).

The firm frequently did business, including consignments and buying shares in artworks, with other dealers in New York and Europe such as Thomas Agnew & Sons; Bensimon, Inc.; F.A. and M.H. Drey; Jacques Helft; Kraemer & Cie.; Pinakos, Inc.; René Weiller; Wildenstein & Co., Inc.; and Armand Wittekind. Dealers based in Europe often did business through S. & R. Rosenberg, Ltd., which was operated in London by Saemy Rosenberg’s brother Raphael Rosenberg, as well as through Hans Stiebel in Paris. There is a significant amount of correspondence between Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc. and S. & R. Rosenberg, and among all the family businesses in the “My Dear Ones” files. The firm also purchased objects and represented collectors in auction sales at the Parke-Bernet Galleries and its successor, Sotheby’s, in New York City; Sotheby & Co. in London; and Christie’s auction houses in both New York and London.

The subseries also contains many entities with which the firm did business, including art shippers, restorers and conservators, art historians, photographers, and lawyers.

Transactions described in these files which contain unique Rosenberg & Stiebel inventory numbers have been indexed, and those from 1969 or earlier are included in this finding aid. When an inventory number is preceded by a P or S number, this refers to a page in the Purchases and Sales volumes in the Sales & Inventory Records series. These inventory numbers are also used to identify artworks in the Photographs series. Object descriptions are transcribed directly from the records, including some French and German descriptions which have not been translated. Please be aware that some objects are described with racial language that is offensive or outdated.

There are Miscellaneous files at the end of each letter of the alphabet. Subjects are listed only when the documents include an indexed transaction. Additional names can be searched upon request.

For preservation purposes, deteriorating paper with which Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., produced copies of their outgoing correspondence prior to mid-1950 was scanned and replaced with copies. The originals have been filed separately.