Digitisation and provision of (still) rights-protected objects for estate archives using the example of the Deutsches Kunstarchiv

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Daniel Hess
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554795637

The Deutsches Kunstarchiv at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum is one of the largest archives of estates in the field of fine arts in the German-speaking world. Its holdings cover the period from the 19th century to the present day. The documents, most of which are unique, cover a wide range of content and media and are highly relevant for many branches of research. The heterogeneity of the archive holdings and the fact that the period of origin of the archive records extends to the present day mean that a wide variety of legal problems can arise when cataloguing the holdings, which must be taken into account when publishing and using the data. The archive catalogues on the basis of ISO standard 21127 (CIDOC CRM). This lends itself to an extension to include rights information and the direct integration of a Rights Expression Language (REL), which is to be carried out as an internationally recognised extension to CIDOC CRM. Furthermore, the archive will implement this extension of the ISO standard in the archive system and implement REL-based interfaces for archive data records in general. The workflows and all project results will be published open source and with corresponding documentation as handouts and best practices.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Participating Institution: Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM)
• Co-Investigators: Privatdozentin Dr. Susanna Brogi; Mark Fichtner; Kathrin Fischeidl; Juliane Hamisch