Commission for Art recovery

Upcoming events:

Defient Requim

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 7:30pm

Defiant Requiem Performance: May 9, 2010 in Budapest, Hungary.


Past Events:

Restitution Conference program Cover

National Gallery, London

May 4, 2010

March 4-5, 2010


Conference of the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM)

February 2009
Venue: New York City
"Provenance Research and CAJM Leadership: Not an Option, An Imperative", February 4, 2009

Spoils of War

February 8-9, 2008
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, Massachusetts

EVENTS

The Commission for Art Recovery helps to provide opportunities for attorneys, academics, and interested professionals to discuss best practices in the efforts to spur restitution. We organize, co-sponsor and participate in national and international lectures and conferences.

In late June 2009, just a little more than ten years after the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, representatives of 46 nations met in Prague, Czech Republic, to discuss developments, changes and recommendations on how to meet the challenges of recovering art and cultural objects looted during the time from Hitler's rise in 1933 to the end of World War II. Holocaust education and remembrance were also prime subjects at the conference, as were immovable assets. The US Delegation was chaired by Stuart Eizenstat, and the Commission for Art Recovery's counsel; his remarks are provided in a link at the left. Charles A. Goldstein, chaired a session (Sunday morning, June 28, 2009) on Legal Issues featuring experts from Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Prague Conference issued two statements that can be read on its website: the Joint Declaration and the Terezín Declaration at http://www.holocausteraassets.eu/press/press-releases/. The conference's website provides many official documents; we are adding texts of several speakers' talks.

In February 2008, Harvard Law School hosted a two-day symposium on the subject of spoils of war and the legal framework of Russian cultural property. The participants explored the historical context and legal grounds for claims in favor of and against using art works and other cultural heritage objects as items for compensation in kind. The event was open to the public.

Representatives of the Commission for Art Recovery also participated in meetings in Paris and in Berlin and helped plan and a symposium sponsored by the Institute of Art and Law in London in June 2008. The program for an upcoming meeting in Basel is now provided.