HLS Conference to Explore Repatriation of Nazi-Looted Art

Posted: April 28, 2003 -- 3:15 p.m.

On Wednesday, April 30, the Harvard Law School ArtsPanel and the European Law Research Center will convene a panel discussion on the continuing efforts to repatriate art looted by the Nazis. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3 p.m. in the Langdell South classroom. [Campus Map | Directions]

Background Information

Over half a century has passed since the Nazis perpetrated the greatest displacement of cultural treasures, books, and archives in history. Many of these items were hidden away in remote castles, salt mines and monasteries. Some of the surviving treasures came home from the war, some were plundered a second time, and still others were dispersed throughout the world.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the United States in particular undertook an unprecedented program of cultural restitution, but the results were imperfect. Even today, museums, auction houses and individual collectors face claims from prior owners and the competing claims of law and ethics complicate the politics of restitution.

Panelists

Martha Lufkin, lawyer, legal correspondent for The Art Newspaper and an expert in recent cases involving claims for the restitution of Nazi-looted art;

Konstantin Akinsha, writer, critic and independent curator based in Washington, D.C., co-author of "Stolen Treasure: The Hunt For The World's Lost Masterpieces" and the American Association of Museum's "Guide to Provenance Research," an expert in trophy art, a consultant for the Commission for Art Recovery in New York City, and a regular contributor to ARTnews;

Dr. Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, senior research associate at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, author of "Trophies of War and Empire" and "Spoils of War Returned: U.S. Restitution of Nazi-Looted Cultural Treasures to the USSR, 1945-1959," and the preeminent expert on Soviet and post-Soviet archives; and

Sarah B. Kianovsky, assistant curator of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts at the Fogg Art Museum and Harvard's expert in provenance research.