One of the last unturned pages in the book of the Holocaust – Nazi-looted Art
This image-rich talk will rapidly review the issue of Nazi-plundered art and the emergence, half a century after World War II ended, of the issue—of restituting art stolen by the Nazis to those from whom the hundreds of thousands of works were stolen, or to their heirs.
The purpose of the review is to offer the parameters of the larger discussion: of the changing landscape of this issue over the past 20 years, including changes in how museum and auction houses have come to think about the matter of ownership legitimacy and provenance history as integral parts of everything they, and we, want to know about a given work of art.
This engaging update carries from Pisarro’s to Klimt’s to Kandinsky’s to the present day!
Ori Z Soltes teaches across disciplines at Georgetown University and is the former Director and Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. He is the co-founder and chair of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project and the author over 300 books and articles, including The Ashen Rainbow: The Holocaust and the Arts.