Co-organized by Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology and Deutsches Haus in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut New York and the Jewish Museum, New York, this conference will bring together an international group of historians, art historians, scholars of provenance research and legal practice, museums directors, museum curators, and journalists. Beyond the specific case of Hildebrand and Cornelius Gurlitt’s long hidden treasures, the conference will explore the manifold legacies of Nazi-looted art that continue to haunt our present.

Keynote Lecture
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Location: Jewish Museum, Scheuer Auditorium, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street
6:30 Introduction
Andreas Huyssen, Director of Deutsches Haus, Columbia University
From “Degenerate Art” to Looted Art: Reflections on a Historical Process in Nazi Germany
Olaf Peters, Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg

Conference Program

Friday, February 20, 2015
Location: Columbia University, 501 Schermerhorn Hall

9:00–9:30 Coffee and Bagels
9:30 Welcome
Holger A. Klein, Chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology,
Columbia University

Morning Session I
Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University (Moderator)
9:45–10:15 Five Uncomfortable and Difficult Topics Relating to
the Restitution of Nazi Looted Art
Jonathan Petropoulos, Claremont McKenna College
10:30–11:00 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, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
11:15–11:45 Coffee Break

Morning Session II
Noam Elcott, Columbia University (Moderator)
11:45–12:15 Networks, Structures, Mechanisms: The Art Market in the ‘Third Reich’ through the auction House Adolf Weinmüller in Munich and Vienna
Meike Hopp, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
12:30–1:00 Hildebrand Gurlitt and his dealings with
German museums during the “Third Reich”
Meike Hoffmann, Freie Universität, Berlin

Saturday, February 21, 2015
Location: Columbia University, 501 Schermerhorn Hall

9:00–9:30 Coffee and Bagels

Morning Session I
Avinoam Shalem, Columbia University (Moderator)
9:45–10:15 "The Largest Jewish Library in the World":
The Books of Holocaust Victims and their Redistribution Following World War II
Gish Amit, Mandel Leadership Institute, Jerusalem
10:30–11:00 Gurlitt, Weinmüller, Nolde
The Recent German Debate on Art Politics in the Nazi Era
Julia Voss, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt
11:30–1:00 Lunch Break

Afternoon Session II
Anson Rabinbach, Princeton University (Moderator)
1:15–1:45 Restitution as Diagnosis: Political Aspects of the “Trophy Art” Problem and Russian-German Relations
Konstantin Akinsha, Guest Fellow in Max Weber Kolleg, Erfurt, Germany
2:00–2:30 All Paths Lead to New York; Cultural Plunder and
Its Commercial Consequences, 1933-Today
Marc Masurovsky, Co-Founder, Holocaust Art Restitution Project, Washington
2:45–3:15 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 at Herrick, Feinstein LLP in New York
3:30–4:00 Coffee Break
4:00–5:30 Panel Discussion featured participants will include:
Barry Bergdoll, Columbia University (Moderator) Stephanie Barron, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles Ruth Beesch, Deputy Director Jewish Museum, New York MaryKate Cleary, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Uwe Hartmann, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin

Generous funding has been provided by:
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst New German Critique
The conference is cosponsored by:
The Heyman Center for the Humanities Department of History
The University Seminar on Cultural Memory The Middle East Institute, Columbia University

February 21st, 9:00–6:00 Columbia University
501 Schermerhorn Hall
1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York

Admission is free for registered participants.
Please register online: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/arthistory/ghosts

Contact

Prof. Andreas Huyssen: ah26columbia.edu
Prof. Holger A. Klein: hak56columbia.edu
Elisabeth Rochau-Shalem: er2704columbia.edu
Prof. Avinoam Shalem: as4501columbia.edu