Chili Palmer 39;s Free Story Annex

[Keith Cogswell]

Atwo-day symposium in English organised by the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in collaboration with the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V. (International Professional Association for Provenance Research), the Jewish Cultural Quarter and Sotheby's. The focus will be the impact of loss and the active looting of possessions as a phase in the process of dehumanisation. Keynote speakers will elaborate on this from different perspectives in order to look at the provenance research that is taking place today. Details of the symposium are available here.

An international symposium in English on the future of WWII Restitution Policies in the Netherlands and abroad, organised by the Culltural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE). For full details of the programme and to book tickets, please click here.

8th international conference organised by the Documentation Centre for Property Transfers of the Cultural Assets of WWII Victims focusing on issues of provenance research, the fate of looted books and libraries, the restitution of looted cultural property, and the possibilities of cooperation in the field of identification, documentation and restitution. In Czech and English. Programme and full details, including registration, here.

When should an object be restituted, when should fair and equitable solutions be negotiated? How should this be done and what current or exemplary experiences and model cases are already available? Possibilities and problems for technical objects such as cars and clocks, toys and photographs, with the aim of providing best practice examples. For full details, please see here.

Call for papers by 14 April on provenance research into musical instruments. The focus is on presentation of experiences and results with the aim of encouraging an exchange between those working in this area. Target groups are provenance researchers, violin makers, musicologists and other specialists, such as instrument dealers and archivists as well as collectors and heirs. For further details, please see here.

A results-oriented workshop aiming to focus on the various approaches to "deciphering" numbers, abbreviations, ciphers and annotations, and the lack of viable platforms for documenting the predominantly handwritten notes in art trade sources when existing aids don't provide cross-source or cross-institutional structures for indexing, probing and analyzing these phenomena. Call for papers by 4 August 2024. For full details, please click here

The Information Database contains information and documentation from forty nine countries, including laws and policies, reports and publications, archival records and resources, current cases and relevant websites.

Professor Dr Raphael Gross has published his much anticipated independent report on provenance research into the E. G. Bhrle Collection in the Kunsthaus Zurich. The report was commissioned in 2023 by the City of Zurich, the Canton of Zurich and the Zurich Society of Fine Arts following lengthy criticism of the research that had been undertaken. The report finds significant problems with the previous research, some of which was very superficial leading to false conclusions, amongst them that works with particularly incomplete provenance and Jewish owners were classified as unproblematic. He identifies five works by Czanne, Van Gogh, Kalf and Gauguin which exemplify this approach. He makes three recommendations: 1. that research continue but with the aim of clarifying previous Jewish ownership and persecution-related confiscation; 2. that an interdisciplinary panel be set up to identify Nazi-related confiscations in the Kunsthaus's own collection and its long term loans within the context of the Washington Best Practices document of March 2024; 3. that the Kunsthaus conduct a public debate on the Bhrle Collection of 633 works of art and, in particular, on whether its presentation at the Kunsthaus can be squared with a public institution's moral and ethical responsibilities. To read the report, please see here.

The joint declaration of the International Council on Archives (ICA), the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) expresses the institutions' profound concern about the escalating destruction of life and cultural heritage during armed conflict and political instability. The Declaration states that they 'abhor the loss of life and reaffirm the priority of protecting all people. We also deplore attacks and destruction of museums, archives, libraries and heritage places, as they are a vital and unique part of the culture of the peoples affected by the conflict. ICA, ICOM, ICOMOS and IFLA urge all parties involved in conflict to respect and protect all libraries, archives and museums and heritage places'. To read the Declaration in full please see here

The transcript of the first day of the New York State Supreme Court proceedings, 7 May 2024, in the case brought by the Robert Owen Lehman Foundation, Inc., in defense of its ownership of a Schiele drawing 'Portrait of the artist's wife', 1917, in regard to the restitution claim brought by the heirs of both Karl Maylnder and Heinrich Rieger. To read the transcript, see here.

Created by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, the Index contains more than 200 Jewish ritual objects, searchable in 15 languages by name or keyword. Each record includes a definition, images and a bibliography. It aims to become a primary digital resource for Jewish heritage institutions and researchers working with Jewish material culture. Access the Index here.

The forum Collecting Central Europe (CCE) organises lectures, seminars, virtual guided tours, workshops and conferences with a particular emphasis on the history of collecting in Central and Eastern Europe which they define as the area once belonging to the Holy Roman Empire plus. Their intention is to break down barriers of research and communication between the European East and West. Events take place online in collaboration with universities, institutions and museums across Central and Eastern Europe and there is also an archive of events.

Issued by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Media, the states and municipal associations, the paper states that they "agree that the procedure created with the establishment of the Advisory Commission in 2003 for the alternative resolution of disputed restitution issues needs to be modified in the light of the experience gained over the past 20 years in order to better fulfil the objectives of the Washington Principles". Key aspects involved include improving "the possibility of initiating proceedings vis--vis public cultural property preservation bodies, the inclusion of claimants in the proceedings and a binding evaluation framework for decision-making. Transparency and consistency should be guaranteed for all parties involved in the procedure at all times".

Key elements are:

1. Replacement of the Advisory Commission with an arbitration tribunal

2. New rules of procedure and a comprehensive, differentiated assessment framework.

3. Decisions to be legally binding and reviewable by a further body.

4. Unilateral access by a party

5. Provenance research to be strengthened with the possibility of commissioning additional expert reports during proceedings

6. Cultural institutions to clearly label cultural property confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution; and the often forgotten fates of art owners to be made visible to the public and appropriately honoured, this to apply particularly to confiscated works whose heirs cannot currently be identified.

7. Cultural institutions to consistently report restitutions and other just and fair solutions to the German Lost Art Foundation with the wish of restitution recipients for confidentiality to be fully honoured. Private individuals also be called upon to report fair and equitable solutions to the German Lost Art Foundation.

Both points 6 and 7 are to be implemented immediately. Points 1-5 will be implemented by the end of 2024 at the latest.

The U.S. State Department has released 'Best Practices for the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art' prepared by a network of Special Envoys and Representatives for Holocaust Issues from 14 countries in recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Washington Conference Principles. The Best Practices document defines 'art' as all kinds of cultural property; defines 'confiscated' as all methods of dispossession; states that all sales by a persecuted person between 1933-1945 can be considered equivalent to an involuntary transfer of property; and states that 'just and fair solutions' means just and fair solutions primarily for the victims of the the Nazis and their heirs, and that the primary just and fair solution is restitution.

There are 15 Best Practices set out in the document which can be viewed here and on the US State Department website here.

Also issued on 5 March 2024 was a Press Release by the US State Department here, Video Remarks by US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken here, and Remarks by Stuart Eizenstat, Special Adviser on Holocaust Issues, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, available here. The entire event is available as a transcript here and with a video here

The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) has issued a report on art restitution achievements and failures over the 25 years since the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets. The WJRO states that "while seven countries have made major progress in art and cultural property restitution, 24 countries from among the 47 surveyed have made minimal to no progress. Additionally, the report emphasizes the critical need to direct attention toward art and cultural property in private collections, signaling a vital area for future focus". To read the report, click here.

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