Arts Law Colloquium Series - Jennifer Kreder - Judicial Amnesia and the Historical Record in Nazi-looted art litigation

Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Chicago, IL
DePaul University, Lewis Center - Rm 805 25 E Jackson Blvd

This presentation will demonstrate the wave of dismissals of claims to Nazi-looted art on technical grounds such that, with few praiseworthy exceptions, the courts of the United States no longer act as beacons of justice for the Holocaust restitution movement. In fact, they are being used by some museums to circumvent federal executive policy and distort the historical record. Tales of our most respected institutions acquiring what they knew or should have known was trafficked and laundered art likely seem outrageous and counter to common sense to those unaccustomed to hearing about the widespread infection of the market with art that had been stolen or extorted from Jews between 1933 and 1945. The truth, however, is that the modern claims are legally viable when viewed within the true historical context of the Holocaust and U.S. executive policy during the War, through the Cold War period and now.

Professor Kreder is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. She has published extensively about and given many presentations in many domestic and foreign venues about legal issues affecting the international art market. With Norman Palmer, she is co-authoring the second edition of Museums and the Holocaust published by the Institute of Art and Law.