Events

Ghosts of the Past: Nazi-Looted Art and Its Legacies

General Programming

February 19–21, 2015 Schermerhorn Hall, Room 501, Columbia University
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

February 20, 2015  Friday

9:30am - 9:45am EDT

Welcome with Holger A. Klein, Chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

9:45am - 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

11:15am - 11:45am EDT

Break I

11:45am - 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

February 21, 2015  Saturday

9:00am - 9:30am EDT

Welcome

9:45am - 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

11:30am - 1:00pm EDT

Break I

1:15pm - 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

3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT

Break II

4:00pm - 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