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March 12, 2011

Saturday, March 12, 2011 - ,,, No comments

Continued Discussion on Museum Guidelines for the Provenance of Nazi-Looted Art

Edgar Degas' "Landscape with Smokestacks" (Chicago Art Institute)
by Emily Blyze
ARCA Alum 2009

Part Two of Five in a special weekend series
Three major cases in the late 1990s shed light on the need for museums to have guidelines and policies on how to review their collections for Nazi-looted art.

Gutmann vs Searle: In 1995, Daniel Searle, a Board member of the Art Institute of Chicago, and then owner of the monotype pastel by Edgar Degas, Landscape with Smokestacks, received a claim from the family of Friedrich and Louise Gutmann, Dutch art collectors, who had owned the work prior to World War II. The case was settled in 1998. Searle, who purchased the work in good faith from a New York collector in 1987 on the Art Institute’s advice, had displayed the work on several occasions before receiving notice of the claim. Searle ceded a fifty percent (50%) ownership to the Art Institute and the other fifty percent (50%) was given to the Gutmann heirs, Lili Gutmann and her nephews, the Goodmans, who claimed the painting. As part of the settlement, the Art Institute purchased the Gutmanns’ half interest based on the current appraised value of the work.

Rosenberg vs Seattle Art Museum: The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) received a claim in 1997 from the Paul Rosenberg Family for the Henry Matisse painting, Odalisque. The SAM asked the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP), a Washington, D.C.-based independent research organization, to conduct a thorough, scholarly and impartial investigation of the painting's provenance. Upon the HARP findings, the SAM returned the painting to the Rosenberg heirs.

The Leopold Schiele case: The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York received claims in 1997 for two paintings, Dead City III and Portrait of Wally, by Egon Schiele on loan from the Leopold Museum in Austria. The U.S. government confiscated the paintings under the National Stolen Property Act when it was on loan from the Leopold, claiming that the museum knew the Nazis had stolen the painting in 1939 from its Jewish owner, Lea Bondi. Dead City III was returned to the Leopold Museum because its former owner had no heirs. The Portrait of Wally case was settled in July 2010: the Leopold Museum paid $19 million to the estate of pre-war owner.

The American Association of Museum Directors (AAMD) established the Task Force on the Spoliation of Art during the Nazi/World War II era (1933-1945) on June 4, 1998. The Task Force recommended that museums review the provenance of their collections. The report's topics include a section entitled Statement of Principles, a section on Guidelines with subcategories that addressed Research Regarding Existing Collections, Future Gifts, Bequests, and Purchases, Access to Museum Records, Discovery of Unlawfully works of Art, Response to Claims Against the Museum, Incoming Loans, and a section with Database Recommendations. An Addendum was released April 30, 2001.

In 1998, the U.S. Federal Government held a series of congressional hearings, forming a Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the U.S. (PCHA) and hosted the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets. In connection with the conference, the “Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art” was released on December 3, 1998. Forty-four governments participated in developing a consensus of the 11 non-binding principles to assist in resolving Nazi-confiscated art issues.

The American Association of Museums (AAM) drafted their guidelines, Unlawful Appropriation of Objects during the Nazi Era, issued in 1999. In 2001, the AAM and AAMD, along with the PCHA, issued their reports defining the standards for disclosure of information and the creation of a searchable central registry of museum object information, as detailed in the AAM Recommended Procedures for Providing Information to the Public about Objects Transferred in Europe during the Nazi Era, adopted in May 2001.

On June 30, 2009, the European Union held a Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague and established the Terezin Declaration. The 46 participating nations endorsed the Terezin Declaration that strengthened and reaffirmed the Washington Principles and reinforced the need for continued provenance research. The Terezin Declaration maintains the non-binding nature of the Washington Principles, but also promotes an urgent need to strengthen and sustain the efforts of the principles. The sense of urgency is noted, but why the need for the Terezin Declaration? What can be accomplished with the Terezin Declaration that could not with the Washington Principles? A letter from the Ambassador Miloš Pojar, Chairman of the Organizing Committee states, “It is our moral and political responsibility to support the Holocaust remembrance and education in national, as well as international, frameworks and to fight against all forms of intolerance and hatred.”

The Terezin Declaration conveys a sense of urgency that was much less noticeable within the Washington Principles. Due to the advanced age of those persecuted, the education, remembrance, and the social welfare needs of Holocaust (Shoah) survivors and other victims of Nazi persecution require a time of reflection on the need for tribute. The Terezin Declaration addresses the need to review current practices regarding provenance research and restitution and, where needed, to define new effective instruments to improve these efforts. The term “instrument” can be interpreted several different ways, including her, a working body constructed to carry out the mission of the Holocaust Era Assets Conference.

Part three will be posted tomorrow.

Saturday, March 12, 2011 - ,, No comments

A Primer on Nazi-Looted Art Provenance: Emily Blyze on the Guidelines Established by Museums

by Emily Blyze, ARCA Alum, Class of 2009

Legal claims by heirs of Holocaust victims whose art works were looted by the Nazis, and claims by foreign “source” countries for objects they believe were exported in violation of patrimony or export laws, have raised awareness of the need for provenance research in regard to due diligence in acquiring works of art. Provenance research has now become the concern of many persons inside and outside the museum profession. This article will discuss the doctrines that have been created and established as common practice to guide museums to the proper handling and protocol for Nazi-looted art. The focus is on the guidelines of Nazi-Era provenance research, specifically addressing the 1998 Washington Principles and the more recent Terezin Declaration, as well as concentrating on the steps museums have taken as a result of the established guidelines. This is the first of a five part series.

In 2009, a Roman newspaper reported that two fingers and a tooth removed from the corpse of Galileo Galilei had been found and would be displayed in an Italian museum.  In 1737, three fingers, a vertebra, and a tooth had been removed from the astronomer’s body 95 years after his death as his corpse was being moved to a monumental tomb opposite that of Michelangelo in Santa Croce Basilica in Florence. One of the fingers recovered is part of the collection of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (IMSS), in Florence. The vertebra is kept at the University of Padua where Galileo taught -- until the Vatican branded him a heretic for proposing that the Earth revolved around the sun. The tooth and the other two fingers from the scientist's right hand (the thumb and a middle finger) were coveted by an Italian marquis, enclosed in a container, and passed down from generation-to-generation, until it turned up at auction and was purchased by a private collector, intrigued by the contents but not sure they were Galileo’s relics. The relics were inside an 18th-century blown-glass vase within a wooden case topped with a wooden bust of Galileo. The buyer eventually contacted Paoloa Galluzzi, Director of the IMSS, and other Florence culture officials. Using detailed historical documents, as well as documentation from the family who had owned the body parts, they concluded the fingers and tooth had belonged to Galileo.

This story is an example of how the use of detailed documents from the museum and the family helped identify the ownership history of Galileo’s literal travel through time. The technical museum term for ownership history is “provenance.” When associated with a painting or other work of art, provenance means the history of ownership. Tracing the provenance of a painting traditionally has been a responsibility of museum curators. But that has changed in recent years, with the growth of the Internet, the availability of records from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and publicity surrounding high profile cases of Jewish-owned art stolen by Nazi officials. Legal claims by heirs of Holocaust victims whose art works were looted or otherwise misappropriated by the Nazis, and claims by foreign “source” countries for objects they believe were exported in violation of patrimony or export laws, have raised awareness of the need for provenance research in regard to due diligence in acquiring works of art. Provenance research has now become the concern of many persons inside and outside the museum profession.

Doctrines have been created and established as common practice to guide museums in the proper handling and protocol for Nazi-looted art from 1933 to 1945. The museum community has met over recent years to provide guidelines for Nazi-Era provenance research include the 1998 Washington Principles and the more recent Terezin Declaration. Why now? Awareness through articles, books and conferences during the early 1990s focused attention on this topic. The reunification of Germany, collapse of the Soviet Union, and the declassification of archival documents in the United States, together brought about a major resurgence of interest in Nazi looted art. Books such as Lynn H. Nicholas’s The Rape of Europa published in 1994 and Jonathan Petropoulous’s, Art as Politics in the Third Reich (1996) and The Faustian Bargain (2000) left readers with in-depth research of details and unflinching accounts of the art world during World War II.

A conference on January 19-21, 1995, “The Spoils of War – World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property,” organized by the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, provided the first forum on the subject. The conference dealt with the art and other cultural property that was looted, damaged, and destroyed in vast quantities by the Nazi armed forces and confiscation agencies and the consequences that ensued. Approximately 70 speakers and guest participants representing more than 15 countries discussed publicly their concerns about World War II recovery and restitution. The outcome was the 1997 publication of The Spoils of War by Elizabeth Simpson which reproduces the papers presented at the conference. Seventeen key legal documents that are often referred to, but rarely reproduced, have been added as appendices. The appendices contain relevant provisions of all major international treaties, laws, conventions, protocols, and official statements relating to wartime plunder, restitution, and repatriation.

Part two will be posted later today.

March 11, 2011

Friday, March 11, 2011 - ,, No comments

ARCA Alum Profile: Catching up with Emily Blyze, Class of 2009

Emily Blyze, ARCA Class 2009
by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, Editor

Emily Blyze graduated from ARCA’s Master’s Program in Art Crime Studies in 2009. She completed her undergraduate work at Indiana University with an Art History major and a Communications and Business minor. After college, she worked for the Indianapolis Museum of Art in the Development department where she worked towards securing gifts for the Membership and Annual Fund programs. Currently, she works at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. She manages all aspects of the Center’s Endowment Campaign including working with and managing key volunteers, execution of prospective donor strategies including interacting with high end donors, and developing proposals for philanthropic support.

We caught up with her recently to ask about her professional experience in fundraising and development. Although her job is not directly involved in studying art crime, she has been informally advising ARCA on seeking donors and supports to assist in spreading the word about art crime.
ARCA blog:     Emily, you were an art historian and a museum employee when you entered the Art Crime Studies program.  How much did you know about art crime when you began the program and did your perspective change?
Ms. Blyze: As an Art Historian, the saying "to the victor go the spoils", was always a caveat. But honestly, I had never thought of art crime in the context of a “crime” before the program. I took away a very different perspective of the actual repercussions of an art crime and its effects on those harmed. Art is a reflection of one’s culture - socially, politically, economically - and the fact that when a work is stolen, so is ones sense of who they are and what they represent. 
ARCA blog: I entered the ARCA program with an interest in museum theft then learned a lot about stolen antiquities, but left the program skeptical about the value of the secondary art market. Did you have the same concerns?


Ms. Blyze: Yes, I think that when dealing with the secondary market, the best way to approach it is "buyer be aware". Not all works are stolen, but as a buyer, you are at risk for enabling black market antiquities to continue to prosper if not taken with caution.



ARCA blog: How can a buyer know that the Raphael up for sale is really a Raphael? Or that it will still be one in 30 years and not just another painting by his master, Perugino? 
Ms. Blyze: As a responsible buyer, make sure the work you are buying has proper documentation and is purchased from a legit dealer and or an auction house. Involving a third party to do due diligence on the work is another action step to curb improper trafficking of stolen goods. 
With a high level name such as Raphael, ownership history or provenance should typically accompany the work. As a well-known and respected artist, Raphael had financially strong benefactors that would allow his work to be properly documented. That might help ease your conscience knowing that the work is truly by Raphael and not by the hand of his teacher, Perugino. However, over time there could be an important discovery depicting otherwise and you now become the proud owner of a Perugino. To me, that is still fantastic. 
ARCA blog: You work in the development end of nonprofit fundraising. What do you think organizations like ARCA can do to raise money to support research into crimes against art? 
Ms. Blyze: The concept of raising money can be a daunting and very overwhelming task. A great place to start is to create a money plan. Writing down financially realistic goals can help drive resources, such as time, staff, volunteers, etc. in the right direction. I am going to stick with Individual support at this time. To create this plan of attack, write down who your players are – identify your network. Code these individuals as either a prospective donor, volunteer, or link (someone to connect you to your prospective donor). From there, you will naturally start to form a pipeline. This pipeline will be a visual reference of who you can engage and cultivate for securing impactful, organizational changing gifts. 
There are plenty of other ways to raise money and I will use ARCA as an example. They have already taken several significant steps in securing gifts by establishing membership dues, tuition costs for the academic program, and honorariums for lectures. 
Ultimately, an organization needs to seek out others that have the same passion, cause and story to share as the institution and support will follow through financial and personal involvement.
Emily’s thesis, “Nazi-Era Provenance Research: Moral Responsibility has Established a Common Practice”, covered the conventions and policies that American museums have tried to adopt and institute in identifying Nazi-looted art and subsequent restitution. The ARCA blog will publish an article by Ms. Blyze on this topic this weekend.

March 10, 2011

Thursday, March 10, 2011 - ,, No comments

"Musée Rodin's Communique Respecting Rodin's Moral Right: A Warning to Collectors about the Notion of Authenticity"

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, Editor
Rodin's "The Thinker" (Norton Simon Museum)

Today I was distracted from provenance research at the Getty Research Institute by a printed current copy of The Art Newspaper. The Musée Rodin published a half page advertisement on the bottom half of page 52 of the March issue a "warning to collectors about the notion of authenticity." The Musée Rodin, as beneficiary, is the only entity that can issue original editions of the artist's work: "a growing number of bronze 'reproductions' or 'aftercasts'" "which do not bear the mark of 'reproductions' or 'aftercasts' are often accompanied by documents, notably certificated attesting to their alleged 'authenticity.' If you would like to read more, you may find the entire communique, in English, at the museum's website here. For those collectors who would like to have a copy of "The Thinker", a resin reproduction may be purchased at the museum's gift shop for 675 euros. The museum's gift shop can be viewed online here.  For now, I'm happy to be able to walk by the Norton Simon Museum every day where a large "Thinker" overlooks the traffic on Colorado Boulevard.  I wonder what he's thinking...that's he's a long way away from Paris?

March 9, 2011

Wednesday, March 09, 2011 - ,,,, No comments

Rodin's Naked Balzac Bronze Stolen Three Months Ago in Jerusalem During Museum Renovation, Reports Haaretz.com; NPR Adds Quote from the Art Loss Register's Chris Marinello

Rodin Statue of Balzac (Photo Courtesy of Harretz.com)
Although the Israel Museum discovered the theft of Auguste Rodin's "Naked Balzac with Folded Arms" three months ago, the information was not made public until yesterday on Haaretz.com. The heavy bronze could not have been moved out of the museum's garden without the use of a crane and a truck. The police investigation has been ongoing.

NPR.org, in covering the story, added a few quotes from the Art Loss Register's Christopher A. Marinello whom you have read about on this blog.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011 - ,, No comments

The New $44.9 Million Turner Painting of Rome Displayed Today at the Getty Center in Los Angeles

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin

On my way to the Getty Research Institute this afternoon, I stopped to view the newly displayed J. M. W. Turner painting, "Modern Rome -- Campo Vaccino", created by the artist 10 years after his last trip to Rome in 1828.  The $44.9 million painting attracted visitors one by one, pausing intently at the view of classical antiquities and Baroque churches.  Yet the painting's first day seemed calm compared to the art work's move from it's previous home in England to it's new home in California, a voyage delayed for eight months while England tried to raise the funds to keep it the National Gallery of Scotland.  You may read more about Turner's works in California here from the Getty's press release and about "Labeling Turner" on the museum's blog here. From overheard comments, visitors to the Getty Center seemed just as impressed with the view of Santa Monica stretching toward the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean on a sunny warm day.



March 7, 2011

Monday, March 07, 2011 - ,,,, No comments

ARCA's Founder Noah Charney & Friend of ARCA, Vernon Rapley, formerly with Scotland Yard, Will Lecture about Art Crime and Stolen Art in London this April

During the first week of April in London, Noah Charney will be giving a pair of talks along with his friend and colleague, Vernon Rapley, the former head of Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques Unit and the current director of security at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The first talk is on April 2 at the V&A Museum and the second is on April 5 at the Royal Geographic Society, in a benefit for the charity Venice in Peril.

Charney and Rapley have spoken together in the past, and their talks combine the theory and history of art crime (that’s Noah's section) with practical experience and stories from the field (Vernon).

"While Vernon ran the Arts Unit, art theft in London dropped an astonishing degree, to such a point that there was little enough art theft that he and his unit could concentrate almost entirely on chasing art forgers," Charney writes in his column, The Secret History of Art in ARTINFO.com. "Vernon and his team made the arrest of the famous Greenhalgh family of forgers among their many successes."

Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery, will discuss "The Theft and Recovery of the Tate Turners."

Nairne, who recently spoke on the same subject at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Massachusettes, will speak about his involvement in the search and recovery of two Joseph Mallord William Turner oil paintings stolen from the Tate Gallery’s collection while they were at an exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, on July 28, 1994.  You can read about the theft and recovery in 2002 here on the Tate's press release.

Information on the lectures:
Victoria & Albert Museum
Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London
Seminar on “Introducing Fakes and Forgeries”
2-5pm

Speakers:
Noah Charney “Art Theft and Investigation”
Vernon Rapley “Investigating Fakes and Forgeries”
Sandy Nairne “The Theft and Recovery of the Tate Turners”
For more information, click here.

April 5
Royal Geographic Society
1 Kensington Gore, SW7 London
Benefit Talks for Venice in Peril
7pm

Speakers:
Noah Charney “The World Wishes To Be Deceived: A Brief History of Art Forgery”
Vernon Rapley “Art Forgery Today”
For more information, click here.

March 6, 2011

Sunday, March 06, 2011 - ,,, No comments

Egyptian Conservator Dr. Hany Hanna Requests Cooperation and Vigilance in Recovery Looted Antiquities

Sphinx
You may read about Dr. Zahi Hawass' reasons for resigning as Minister of State for Antiquity Affairs on his website here.

ARCA alum Julia Brennan, a textile conservator, sent an email from England today which forwarded a message from a colleague, Dr. Hany Hanna, an Egyptian conservator, and Chief Conservator for the Division of Antiquities. "I send this message to you as Hany is clearly putting out an SOS and plea for international due diligence and assistance in the retrieval of artifacts lost during this current change and upheaval," Julia wrote.

This is the email from Dr. Hanna:
Dear Friends and colleagues, Greetings from Egypt, 
As we have cooperated in the past to work in returning the national stolen antiquities and objects from Iraq, Egypt etc. It is our time now to work hard in mentoring the market and borders…etc. for the stolen Egyptian antiquities and objects.  There is not time to waste regarding the lying of this who said in Jan 28 that “there are no lost object from Egypt such as the Egyptian Museum ”.  NOW it is our time to work. 
I appeal all our noble and honest friends in all the world to keep in mind to mentor every where and to keep our eyes open regarding the stolen Egyptian antiquities and objects, let’s cooperate as usual, all together, archaeologists, Conservators, lawyers. Officers, Journalists and media, all the organization such as INTERPOL, UNESCO, ICOM, AIC, Border Authorities, Heritage lovers Associations and Societies, NGO as well as governmental departments. This is our time to continue doing our Best for a new Well DONE. We call for the full wise accountable freedom, well-being, full respect and better life for all the Egyptian. We call for returning of the stolen Egyptian antiquities and objects. 
Best Regards,
Dr. (Mr.) / Hany Hanna (Ph. D)
- Member of Front Support of the Egyptian Revolution,
Member of the Council of Trustees of the Revolution and member of the Peer and Editing Commission on the Preparation of its Decisions
-International Expert in Conservation and Restoration.
-Chief Conservator, General Director of Conservation, Helwan, El-Saf and Atfeh Sector, Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Egypt.
- Founder & Former Coordinator for the International Council of Museum-Conservation Committee - Wood, Furniture and Lacquer (ICOM-CC- Wood, Furniture and Lacquer) (Ex elected Voluntary International position).
-Professor, Higher Institute for Coptic Studies in Cairo (voluntary work).
- Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar, Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage.
- Writer, Egyptian and International Newspapers.
You may also read about Dr. Hanna's earlier status report in February on the Museum Security Network here.

Sunday, March 06, 2011 - ,, No comments

Tulane Law School Symposium: "Defending Aphrodite: Enforcing International Cultural Property Law" in Siena in June

Cathedral of Siena (Courtesy of Tulane Law School)

The Tulane-Siena Institute for International Law, Cultural Heritage and the Arts, the University of Siena and the European University Institute will present "Defending Aphrodite: Enforcing International Cultural Property Law" from June 3 to 4 this year in Siena, Italy.

The panel "International Legal Order" will feature F. Francioni on "Plurality and Interaction of Legal Orders in the Enforcement of International Cultural Heritage Norms"; Ana Vrdoljak on "Enforcing Restitution of Cultural Property through Peace Treaties"; F. Lenzerini on "The Role of International and Mixed Criminal Courts in the Enforcement of International Norms on the Protection of Cultural Property"; L. Rush and M. Bogdanos on "Enforcement of International Norms for the Protection of Art and Cultural Heritage in Times of War."

The panel, "Enforcement by Domestic Courts" will feature R. Pavoni on "Sovereign Immunity and the Enforcement of International Cultural Property Law"; P. Vigni on "The Role of Domestic Courts in Adjudicating Underwater Cultural Heritage Disputes: A Comparative Analysis of US and Italy's Jurisprudence"; Patty Gerstenblith on "Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions in American State Courts"; Herb Larson on "Failure of the U. S. Department of Justice to Protect Art and Cultural Property"; and J. Gordley on "Reclaiming Cultural Heritage in Domestic Courts."

The panel, "Alternative Methods of Enforcement: Arbitration, Diplomatic, Soft Law & Settlement methods" will feature P. Lalive on "Enforcing International Cultural Property Law Through Arbitration"; H. Flora on "Enforcement by the Code of Ethics of Museums and Dealers of Art"; D. Fincham on "The Sources and Impact of Cultural Heritage Norms" and A. Chechi on "The Role of UNESCO in Promoting Compliance with International Cultural Property Law."

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