Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

A tragic fate, law and ethics in the battle over Nazi-looted art, Nicholas M. O'Donnell

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 394-396) and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

A tragic fate

bibliography

Nicholas M. O'Donnell

law and ethics in the battle over Nazi-looted art

"The organized theft of fine art by Nazi Germany has captivated worldwide attention in the last 20 years. As much as any other topic arising out of World War II, stolen art has proven to be an issue that simply will not go away. Newly found works of art pit survivors and the hteir heirs against museums, foreign nations, and even their own family members. These stories are enduring because they speak to one of the core tragedies of the Nazi era: how a nation at the pinnacle of fine art and culture spawned a legalized culture of theft and plunder. A Tragic Fate is the first book to seriously address the legal and ethical rules that have dictated the results of restitution claims between competing claimants to the same works of art. It provides a history of art and culture in German-occupied Europe, an introduction to the most significant collections in Europe to be targeted by the Nazis, and a narrative of the efforts to reclaim looted artwork--including Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, Camille Pissarro's Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi, effet de pluit, and Egon Schiele's Portrait of Wally--in the decades following the Holocaust through profiles of some of the art world's most famous and influential restitution cases"--Jacket

Part one. Art and culture in occupied Europe -- From there to here : legislated plunder in the Third Reich and the Allied response -- Part two. The new era -- The Washington Conference and its ethical parallels -- Portrait of Wally and the politics of seizure -- A new door opens : Maria Altmann and the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer -- Landscape with smokestacks and early trends -- The Max Stern estate -- Part three. Out of time? -- Bakalar and the defense of laches -- California legislative amendments and the legacy of Jacques Goudstikker -- The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Oskar Reichel, and provenance research -- Prescriptive law in Louisiana -- The Nathan heirs, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Toledo Museum of Art -- The knives come out -- Part four. Back and forth -- Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy -- Léone Meyer and the University of Oklahoma -- Legally present : a jurisdictional hook -- The Pissarro of Lily Cassirer -- Hungary and the Herzog Collection -- Commercial activity or sovereign act? -- Part five. The worst system in the world but all the rest -- Progress or broken promises? : restitution claims procedures among the signatories to the Washington Conference principles -- A tragic fate : conclusions and possibilities -- Glossary of names, terms and concepts