WThe 2006 Goudstikker restitution of 202 paintings is a binding decision by the Dutch Ministry of Culture on a WWII restitution case between the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker and the agency in charge of the Dutch National art collection. The 202 paintings are just a fraction of the property once owned by Goudstikker that was seized during the German occupation in 1940. After post-war discovery in Germany of much of the collection, it was returned to the Dutch State by the Monuments Men but despite repeated attempts by Goudstikker's widow, never given back to the heirs. To finance further recovery activities through provenance research, much of the 2006 group of paintings have since been sold by the Goudstikker heirs, and a few were bought back by the Dutch State. See Jacques Goudstikker for more information about his collection.
WKurt Walter Bachstitz was a German-Austrian art dealer. He died shortly before his naturalization to the Netherlands.
WThe Baldin Collection is a group of 364 masterpieces removed from Germany to the Soviet Union by Soviet Army officer Victor Baldin at the end of World War II. The ensemble consists of 362 drawings and 2 paintings by Dürer, van Gogh, Manet, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian and other famous artists. Historically part of the collection at the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Baldin group came from a much larger cache of artworks stored by the Germans in a Brandenburg castle to protect it from air raids. In 1945 the castle was occupied by the Red Army and the storage vaults were looted, mainly by Russian soldiers but also by the local German population. The works Baldin took were then hidden at a Soviet Research Institute for many years. In 1991 the collection was moved to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg where its existence was revealed to the world in 1992. It remains there today.
WThe Berlinka ('Berliner'), also depozyt berliński and skarb pruski, is the Polish name for a collection of German original manuscripts originally kept at the Prussian State Library in Berlin, which since the end of World War II are held by the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków. The legal status of the documents is subject of an ongoing debate.
WThe City of Gotha and Federal Republic of Germany v. Sotheby's and Cobert Finance S.A. was a September 1998 case in the High Court of England and Wales involving the ownership of a Joachim Wtewael painting. The case was the first reported court decision on section 221 of the German Civil Code. This section involves the limitation of proprietary actions when a third party has acquired possession of the property. The case is important in regards to the concepts of statutes of limitation and acquisitive prescription. It also contains a fascinating tale of state art trophies, theft, smuggling, backstabbing and restitution, against the background of major European political events, written by a judge with a sense of humor.
WZhang Dinghuang ; 1895–1986), also known as Zhang Fengju was a Chinese-American antiquarian, linguist, literary critic, poet, and translator. He was born in Nanchang and an expert in antique manuscripts. Zhang was a supporting but key figure of the rich 20th century Chinese literary movements.
WBetween 1939 and 1941 objects of fine and decorative art deemed to be of exceptional artistic or historical value, which became known collectively as Polish National Treasures, were evacuated out of Poland at the onset of World War II in September 1939 and transported via Romania, France, and Britain to Canada. The bulk of them came from the Wawel Castle in Kraków and included a rich collection of Jagiellonian tapestries, as well as Szczerbiec, the medieval coronation sword of Polish kings; these came to be known as Wawel Treasures, an appellation sometimes erroneously extended to all of the evacuated items. Most of the rest of the salvaged objects were manuscripts from the National Library in Warsaw, including the earliest documents in the Polish language and Frédéric Chopin's autograph sheet music. The treasures were complemented by works of art from the Royal Castle of Warsaw and a Gutenberg Bible from the library of the Catholic Higher Seminary of Pelplin. After the end of the war, the treasures remained in Canada for nearly two decades due to competing claims made by the new communist government of Poland and the London-based Polish government-in-exile. Negotiations spanned over fifteen years before they were eventually returned to Poland in 1961.
WTheodor Fischer (1878–1957) was a Swiss art dealer and auctioneer in Lucerne who after the First World War built a highly successful firm of auctioneers that dominated the Swiss art market. In 1939 he was the auctioneer at the infamous Grand Hotel auction of "degenerate art" removed from German museums by the Nazis. During the Second World War he played a key part in the trading of art looted by the Germans from occupied countries.
WFive Days, Five Nights is a 1961 joint Soviet–East German film, directed by Lev Arnshtam and Heinz Thiel.
WThe Führermuseum or Fuhrer-Museum, also referred to as the Linz art gallery, was an unrealized art museum within a cultural complex planned by Adolf Hitler for his hometown, the Austrian city of Linz, near his birthplace of Braunau. Its purpose was to display a selection of the art bought, confiscated or stolen by the Nazis from throughout Europe during World War II. The cultural district was to be part of an overall plan to recreate Linz, turning it into a cultural capital of Nazi Germany and one of the greatest art centers of Europe, overshadowing Vienna, for which Hitler had a personal distaste. He wanted to make the city more beautiful than Budapest, so it would be the most beautiful on the Danube River, as well as an industrial powerhouse and a hub of trade; the museum was planned to be one of the greatest in Europe.
WJacques Goudstikker was a Jewish Dutch art dealer who fled the Netherlands when it was invaded by Nazi Germany during World War II, leaving three furnished properties and an extensive and significant art collection including over 1200 paintings, many of which had been previously catalogued as "Old Masters". The entire collection, which had been surveyed by Hermann Goering himself, was subsequently looted by the Nazis. Between the two World Wars, Jacques Goudstikker had been the most important Dutch dealer of Old Master paintings, according to Peter C. Sutton, executive director and CEO of the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science. Despite efforts of Goudstikker's widow after the war to regain possession of the collection, it was not until after her death that the Dutch government finally restituted 202 paintings to the Goudstikker family in 2006. To finance efforts to reclaim more of the stolen art, a large portion of them were sold at auction in 2007 for almost $10 million.
WThe Guelph Treasure is a collection of medieval ecclesiastical art originally housed at Brunswick Cathedral in Braunschweig, Germany. The Treasure takes its name from the princely House of Guelph of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
WRolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt was a German art collector. The son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, a Third Reich dealer of Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt was the final guardian of the Gurlitt Collection, a large collection of art acquired in part under dubious circumstances before and during the reign of the Nazis.
WThe Gurlitt Collection was a collection of around 1,500 art works assembled by the late German art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895–1956) which was passed first to his wife, Helene, and on her death to their son, Cornelius Gurlitt, who died in 2014.
WHildebrand Gurlitt was a German art historian, art gallery director who dealt in Nazi-looted art as one of Hitler's and Goering's four authorized dealers for "degenerate art".
WFriedrich Bernhard Eugen "Fritz" Gutmann was a Dutch banker and art collector. A convert from Judaism, he and his wife were murdered by the Nazis in 1944, and parts of his art collection stolen by the German occupying forces. The collection and the fate of Fritz Gutmann is described by his grandson, Simon Goodman, in the 2015 book The Orpheus Clock.
WThe Holocaust (Amendment) Act 2019, introduced by Theresa Villiers under the Ten Minute Rule, stopped the Holocaust Act 2009 from lapsing.
WThe Holocaust Act 2009 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to confer, on certain national institutions, a power that was already possessed by other museums to return to their rightful owners cultural objects unlawfully acquired during the Nazi era. It was introduced into Parliament as the Holocaust Restitution Bill. The Bill was amended to give it a different name.
WIsaac de Jouderville, was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was a pupil of Rembrandt.
WThe Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting widely attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa.
WEthelwyn Manning was the second Chief Librarian of the Frick Art Reference Library. During World War II, she assisted the Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) on Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas, later known as the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA).
WKurt Martin was a German art historian.
WAlois Miedl was a naturalized Dutch art dealer, originally a German Nazi banker, born in Munich, who had moved to and was mainly active in the Netherlands, involved with the sales of properties stolen from Jews who had fled or had been deported.
WSeated Man with a Cane is a 1918 oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. The painting is currently the subject of a complex ownership dispute.
WThe Monuments Men is a 2014 war film directed by George Clooney, and written and produced by Clooney and Grant Heslov. The film stars an ensemble cast including Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and Cate Blanchett.
WThe Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program under the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied armies was established in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of approximately 400 service members and civilians worked with military forces to safeguard historic and cultural monuments from war damage, and as the conflict came to a close, to find and return works of art and other items of cultural importance that had been stolen by the Nazis or hidden for safekeeping. Some of them are portrayed and honored in the 2014 film The Monuments Men.
WThe Munich Central Collecting Point was a depot used by the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program after the end of the Second World War to process, photograph and redistribute artwork and cultural artifacts that had been confiscated by the Nazis and hidden throughout Germany and Austria. Other Central Collecting Points were located at Marburg, Wiesbaden and Offenbach, with the overall aim of giving restitution for the artifacts to their countries of origin.
WMany priceless artworks by the Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh were looted by Nazis during the Third Reich (1933–1945), mostly from Jewish collectors forced into exile or murdered.
WNazi plunder was the stealing of art and other items which occurred as a result of the organized looting of European countries during the time of the Third Reich by agents who acted on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of Germany. The looting of Jewish property was a key part of the Holocaust. The plundering was carried out from 1933, beginning with the seizure of the property of German Jews, until the end of World War II, particularly by military units which were known as the Kunstschutz, although most of the plunder was acquired during the war. In addition to gold, silver and currency, cultural items of great significance were stolen, including paintings, ceramics, books and religious treasures.
WThe Ossolineum or the National Ossoliński Institute is a Polish cultural foundation, publishing house, archival institute and a research centre of national significance founded in 1817. Located in the city of Wrocław since 1947, it is the second largest institution of its kind in Poland after the ancient Jagiellonian Library in Kraków. Its publishing arm is the oldest continuous imprint in Polish since the early 19th century. It bears the name of its founder, Polish nobleman, Count Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński (1748-1826).
WEmmanuelle Polack is a French art historian and author who investigates provenance of works of art in the Louvre as director of research there.
WSeymour Pomrenze was a Jewish-American archivist and records manager. He was the first director of the Offenbach Archival Depot, the primary Allied collection point for books and archival material looted by the Nazis.
WThe Portrait of Count Stanislas Potocki is a 1781 equestrian portrait of Polish patron, politician and writer Stanisław Kostka Potocki by the French painter Jacques-Louis David. It was painted in Rome when the artist and subject met during David's stay at the Villa Medici after winning the first prize for painting in the Prix de Rome, and chronologically after his Saint Roch interceding with the Virgin for the Plague-Stricken and before Belisarius begging for alms. Its equestrian format is owed to influences from Rubens.
WPriam's Treasure is a cache of gold and other artifacts discovered by classical archaeologists Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik, on the northwestern coast of modern Turkey. The majority of the artifacts are currently in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
WPrice v. United States (1995) was a lawsuit concerning the ownership of certain artwork seized by the United States in Germany in the aftermath of World War II. It was decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which overturned an initial judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The decision was based on the definition of the tort of conversion and the applicability of the principle of sovereign immunity.
WThe Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War is a 1994 book by Lynn H. Nicholas and a 2006 documentary film. The book explores the Nazi plunder of looted art treasures from occupied countries and the consequences. It covers a range of associated activities: Nazi appropriation and storage, patriotic concealment and smuggling during World War II, discoveries by the Allies, and the extraordinary tasks of preserving, tracking, and returning by the American Monuments officers and their colleagues. Nicholas was awarded the Légion d'Honneur by France.
WThe Rare Book Preservation Society (文献保存同志会) was founded in 1940 by Zheng Zhenduo (郑振铎), Zhang Shouyong (张寿镛), He Bingsong (何炳松), Zhang Yuanji (张元济), and Zhang Fengju (张凤举) for the purpose of secretly acquiring and preserving rare books and manuscripts in the Shanghai Jiangnan region. These cultural assets have been accumulated by a number of famous private libraries some over 1,000 years.
WRescuing Da Vinci is a largely photographic, historical book about art reclamation and preservation during and after World War II, written by American author Robert M. Edsel, published in 2006 by Laurel Publishing.
WJulius 'Papa' Ringel was an Austrian general in the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. He fought in the Western and Eastern fronts, as well as the Balkan Campaign. Ringel commanded the 3rd Mountain Division, 5th Mountain Division, LXIX Corps, Wehrkreis XI and the Army Corps Ringel. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.
WThe Romanian Treasure is a collection of valuable objects and the gold reserves of the Romanian government sent to Russia for safekeeping during World War I. After the Romanian Army entered Bessarabia, at the time part of the Russian Empire, in early 1918, the new Soviet government that managed to rule Russia severed all diplomatic relations and confiscated the Romanian Treasure. As of today, only part of the objects and none of the gold reserves have been returned.
WRodolfo Siviero was an Italian secret agent, art historian and intellectual, most notable for his important work in recovering artworks stolen from Italy during the Second World War as part of the 'Nazi plunder'.
W"The Spoils of War—World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property" was an international symposium held in New York City in 1995 to discuss the artworks, cultural property, and historic sites damaged, lost, and plundered as a result of World War II. The three-day event was sponsored by the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. The conference was organized by Elizabeth Simpson, an archaeologist and professor at the Bard Graduate Center.
WMax Stern (1904-1987) was a German-Canadian arts benefactor, art historian, and owner of Montreal's Dominion Gallery. He played an important role in promoting young and unknown Canadian artists. Before immigrating to Canada, he was the owner and director of the prestigious Galerie Stern in Düsseldorf. In 1937 he was forced by the Nazi Government to close his gallery. After many of the gallery's work were sold at auction or confiscated by the Nazis, he fled Germany to London where he was initially interned as an enemy alien for two years before being allowed to emigrate to Canada.
WThe Symphony No. 2 in E minor, is one of the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's most well-known pieces of music. Completed in 1944, it was nicknamed The Bell or Symphony with Bells by Georgi Khubov for its bell motif that begins and ends the piece. A typical performance lasts about 50 minutes.
WThe theft of medieval art from Quedlinburg was perpetrated by United States Army Lieutenant Joe T. Meador in the days prior to the end of World War II in Europe. Precious church objects stored near Quedlinburg, Germany, were found by the U.S. Army. They were placed under guard, but eight extremely valuable objects went missing, including a 9th-century illuminated manuscript gospel book, the Samuhel Evangeliar, and a printed evangeliary dating to 1513, both with jewelled book-covers, as well as reliquaries, an ivory liturgical comb, a perfume-flask made out of rock crystal and other irreplaceable artifacts of historical importance.
WThe UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property is an international treaty. The treaty, signed to combat the illegal trade in cultural items, was signed on 14 November 1970, and came into effect on 24 April 1972. As of August 2021, 141 states have ratified the treaty.
WUNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects is the international treaty on the subject of cultural property protection. It attempts to strengthen the main weaknesses of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The UNIDROIT Convention seeks to fight the illicit trafficking of cultural property by modifying the buyer's behaviour, obliging him/her to check the legitimacy of their purchase.
WWoman in Gold is a 2015 biographical drama film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Alexi Kaye Campbell. The film stars Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl, Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany, Max Irons, Charles Dance, Elizabeth McGovern, and Jonathan Pryce.
WThe looting of Polish cultural artifacts and industrial infrastructure during World War II was carried out by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union simultaneously after the invasion of Poland of 1939. A significant portion of Poland's cultural heritage, estimated at about half a million art objects, was plundered by the occupying powers. Catalogued pieces are still occasionally recovered elsewhere in the world and returned to Poland.