Events
Cosponsors
- Goethe-Institut New York
- The Jewish Museum
- Deutsches Haus, Columbia University
- Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
- Middle East Institue of Columbia University
- History Department of Columbia University
- Columbia University Seminar on Cultural Memory
Organizers
- Andreas Huyssen, Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
- Holger Klein, Professor and Chair of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
- Avinoam Shalem, Riggio Professor of the History of the Arts of Islam
An International Conference co-organized by Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology & Deutsches Haus in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut New York, and the Jewish Museum, New York. Cosponsored with Columbia University's Middle East Institute, the History Department, and the University Seminar on Cultural Memory. Funding provided by Columbia University’s Institute of Israel and Jewish Studies, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), and New German Critique
“Ghosts of the Past: Nazi-Looted Art and Its Legacies” convenes an international group of art historians, historians, curators, and scholars in provenance research and the history of German art dealership to explore an unexamined chapter of the legacies of the Third Reich.
This conference, to be held at Columbia on February 20 and 21, 2015, opens with a keynote lecture at the Jewish Museum by Olaf Peters, Professor, Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, and curator of the recent exhibition "Degenerate Art" at the Neue Galerie, New York.
Admission is free for registered participants.
Conference registration is closed. The event will be livestreamed at link.
Locations:
February 19, 6:30pm- 8:00pm: Olaf Peters, Keynote Speech, The Jewish Museum
February 20: 9:00am-1:00pm, 501 Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University
February 21: 9:00am-6:00pm, 501 Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University
Program
time9:30am - 9:45am EDT
Welcome with Holger A. Klein, Chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
time9:45am - 11:15am EDT
Morning Session I
Five Uncomfortable and Difficult Topics Relating to the Restitution of Nazi Looted Art
Jonathan Petropoulus
Professor of History
Claremont KcKenna College
Pressure, Erasure, Return? Investigating the “Grey Zone” of Interactions between Jewish Art Experts and German Art Historians in Nazi Occupied Europe – and After
Christian Fuhrmeister
Dr. of Philosophy
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
Moderator
Andreas Huyssen
Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature
Columbia University
time11:15am - 11:45am EDT
Break I
time11:45am - 1:00pm EDT
Morning Session II
Networks, Structures, Mechanisms: ˝The Art Market in the ‘Third Reich’ through the auction House Adolf Weinmüller in Munich and Vienna
Meike Hopp
Project Assistant
Research Department at Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
Hildebrand Gurlitt and his dealings with German museums during the “Third Reich”
Meike Hoffman
Professor
Free University of Berlin
Moderator
Noam Elcott
Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Media
Columbia University
time9:00am - 9:30am EDT
Welcome
time9:45am - 11:30am EDT
Morning Session I
"The Largest Jewish Library in the World":The Books of Holocaust Victims and their Redistribution Following World War II
Gish Amit
Fellow
Mandel Leadership Institute, Jerusalem
Gurlitt, Weinmüller, Nolde: The Recent German Debate on Art Politics in the Nazi Era
Julia Voss
Faculty Member
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Moderator
Avinoam Shalem
Riggio Professor of the History of the Arts of Islam
Columbia University
time11:30am - 1:00pm EDT
Break I
time1:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Afternoon Session II
Restitution as Diagnosis: Political Aspects of the “Trophy Art” Problem and Russian-German Relations
Konstantin Akinsha
Guest Fellow
Max Weber Kolleg, Erfurt, Germany
All Paths Lead to New York; Cultural Plunder and Its Commercial Consequences, 1933-Today
Marc Masurovsky
Co-Founder
Holocaust Art Restitution Project, Washington DC
The Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art and Other Cultural Property: Have we gone too far or not far enough?
Lawrence M. Kaye
Co-Chair of the Art Law Group
Herrick, Feinstein LLP in New York
Moderator
Anson Rabinbach
Professor of History
Princeton University
time3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Break II
time4:00pm - 5:30pm EDT
Panel Discussion
Barry Bergdoll
Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History
Columbia University
Stephanie Barron
Senior Curator and Head of Modern Art
Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles
Ruth Beesch
Deputy Director, Program Administration
Jewish Museum, New York
MaryKate Cleary
Collection Specialist, Department of Painting and Sculpture
The Museum of Modern Art
Uwe Hartmann
Graduate Historian
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
Participants
- Konstantin Akinsha Guest Fellow Max Weber Kolleg, Erfurt, Germany
- Gish Amit Fellow Mandel Leadership Institute, Jerusalem
- Stephanie Barron Senior Curator and Head of Modern Art Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles
- Ruth Beesch Deputy Director, Program Administration Jewish Museum, New York
- Barry Bergdoll Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History Columbia University
- MaryKate Cleary Collection Specialist, Department of Painting and Sculpture The Museum of Modern Art
- Noam Elcott Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Media Columbia University
- Christian Fuhrmeister Dr. of Philosophy Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
- Uwe Hartmann Graduate Historian Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
- Meike Hoffman Professor Free University of Berlin
- Meike Hopp Project Assistant Research Department at Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
- Lawrence M. Kaye Co-Chair of the Art Law Group Herrick, Feinstein LLP in New York
- Marc Masurovsky Co-Founder Holocaust Art Restitution Project, Washington DC
- Olaf Peters University Professor Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
- Jonathan Petropoulus Professor of History Universiteit Utrecht
- Anson Rabinbach Professor of History Princeton University
- Julia Voss Faculty Member Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung