Category Archives: Provenance

Progress on the Washington Principles: a glass half full after 20 years?

Posted on: December 5, 2018 by Emily Gould

The adoption of the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art by 44 nations in 1998 marked a deeply significant moment in the development of cultural policy in the 20th and 21st centuries. Whilst the extent of looting perpetrated by the Nazis during the 1933-45 period was fairly well understood at that stage, few would have […]

New IFAR Provenance Guide

Posted on: July 28, 2017 by Hélène Deslauriers

The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) has recently published a Provenance Guide. As set out in the Introduction to the Guide, provenance had historically concerned the attribution and authenticity of a work. The recent wave of claims by Nazi Holocaust survivors, or their heirs, as well as the threat of illegal exports from foreign source […]

Two recent antiquities cases in the US

Posted on: July 7, 2017 by Alexander Herman

A warning for museums? There have been two interesting recent developments relating to antiquities: one regarding allegedly looted antiquities, the other regarding artefacts at the centre of a legal storm that has been brewing for some 15 years; both involve the United States of America. The first is the action brought by US District Attorneys […]

Switzerland provides financial support to provenance research projects

Posted on: January 25, 2016 by Nina M. Neuhaus

Switzerland was one of the 44 states that approved the Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated Art in December 1998. By doing so, the Swiss Confederation obliged itself to identify artworks in its collections that were looted during the Second World War, undertake efforts to locate their pre-War owners or legal successors, and take measures to achieve […]

Dutch Restitutions Committee rejects Stettiner claim

Posted on: April 17, 2015 by Alexander Herman

Last month, the Dutch Restitutions Committee published its recommendation regarding a claim brought forward by the heirs of the three Stettiner siblings who ran the Stettiner Gallery in Paris until it was closed during the Second World War. The claim involved a portrait by Salomon Koninck (1609-1656) entitled Old Man with Beard, which currently forms part […]

Gurlitt update: much research, no restitutions.

Posted on: February 24, 2015 by Alexander Herman

In a press release last week, the Kunstmuseum Bern explained that, due to the legal challenge to Cornelius Gurlitt’s will by his cousin Uta Werner (discussed by Nina Neuhaus here), there have as yet been no restitutions of artworks from the 2012 Munich art trove, neither by the museum, nor by any other body. Of course, news […]

Another Australian auction dispute

Posted on: January 13, 2015 by Alexander Herman

On the heels of McBride v Christie’s Australia, came another auction dispute from Australia, this one involving the children of renowned painter John Olsen and Sotheby’s Australia. Sotheby’s had listed for auction an Olsen work entitled Mother, which had been painted in 1964 for the painter’s second wife, marking the birth of their daughter. The children, now executors of their mother’s […]

Recent authenticity dispute in Australia

Posted on: January 9, 2015 by Alexander Herman

Judgment was rendered last month by the Supreme Court of New South Wales in the case of McBride v Christie’s Australia. The case involved the auction sale of a painting by Australian modernist artist Albert Tucker in May 2000 to a barrister named Louise McBride for AUD $75,000. Later, in 2010, when McBride made arrangements to sell the […]

Klimt Foundation and heir seek ‘just and fair’ solution

Posted on: September 16, 2014 by Alexander Herman

Recent reports have come out involving a 1902 portrait of Gertrud Loew by Gustav Klimt that had allegedly been taken by the Nazis in Austria from the painting’s subject and owner. Loew had left Austria for the United States in 1939 following the Anschluss of the previous year. It is unclear exactly what happened to the […]

French Restitution of Three Looted Paintings

Posted on: March 14, 2014 by Alexander Herman

A ceremony took place last Monday to commemorate the most recent restitution of three looted paintings by the French State. The speech accompanying the return by French Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti demonstrated a change in approach by the French State regarding looted paintings still held by French Museums. It appears Museums will be required to undertake […]