Looted art

Artikel over het rituele interieur van het logegebouw in Den Haag (1926) en de sinds de naziroof in 1940 vermiste voorwerpen. Verschenen in het ledenblad van de Orde van Vrijmetselaren onder het Grootoosten der Nederlanden. / Article on the interior design of the Freemasons Hall in The Hague (1926), and the objects missing since the nazi-looting in 1940. Published in the members' magazine of the Order of Freemasons under the Grand East of the Netherlands.

In this paper we present a small English dictionary consisting of 99 sample entries generated fully automatically using the ChatGPT engine. We briefly introduce ChatGPT and the underlying machinery (an autoregressive transformer-based neural network) but primarily focus on discussing the performance of the system, factors that influence the quality of the output and limitations that we have established. We show that while the system clearly represents part of the state-of-the-art of automatic generation for some entry components, it also has significant limitations which the lexicographic community should be aware of.

This article aims to present the contents of the catalogue of the books of the medical library of the Warsaw physician Jan Roch Raum (1854-1918). Based on the analysis of the prese-rved catalogue, an attempt will be made to grasp the thematic scope of the collected works, which will allow to determine the interests and reading passions of the Warsaw physician. The analysis of the preserved documents will also allow an attempt to determine the size of the collected book, which in turn will make it possible to show Jan Roch Raum’s medical library against the background of other medical book collections in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The presented article complements the current state of research and contributes to further in-depth study of the library of the eminent Warsaw surgeon Jan Roch Raum.

Rzeźba jako świadectwo Wśród wielu małopolskich legend jedna z nich głosi, że czasami o północy budzą się w wawelskich grobach polscy królowe, a następnie opuszczają swe sarkofagi i obchodzą krakowski zamek. Opowieść ta miała zainspirować Szymanowskiego do zaprojektowania monumentalnej grupy Pochód na Wawel.

In this paper, I draw attention to a recently discovered fragment of a late medieval manuscript, currently preserved in the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin [within a box with the shelfmark: DEP 39/2 (Polon; Russ.)]. The fragment is likely to have been written in the second third or third quarter of the 14th century. The quire contains liturgical hymns and a litany, suggesting that it may have originally been part of a late medieval hymnary, possibly within a breviary. The texts in the fragment, particularly those for the feasts of St. Florian and St. Stanislaus, as well as the litany, indicate an influence of the Kraków liturgy.

In modern times, or perhaps even earlier, the quire was preserved in the Seminary Library in Płock, as evidenced by stamps on fols. 1r and 4v. The fragment appears to have been transferred to Berlin following the looting of the Płock Library during World War II, a conclusion supported by the context of its discovery in Berlin, where it was cataloged as a deposit, together with other materials of Polish provenance. Moreover, the envelope containing the fragment bears the note ‘aus polnischem Besitz’. It is plausible that this fragment originated from a late medieval breviary that was preserved before World War II in the Płock Seminary Library, identified by A. Vetulani as Ms. 72 and by Wł. Mąkowski as Ms. 19.

The significance of this discovery for Polish cultural heritage is underscored not only by the fragment’s likely turbulent modern history but also by its contents. The parchment leaves preserve "Gratuletur ecclesia oua meli praeconia", known only from later manuscripts, and a substantial portion of the hymn "Gaude, mater Polonia", in honor of St. Stanislaus. The Berlin fragment represents one of the earliest, if not the oldest, extant witnesses of the "Gaude, mater Polonia" hymn’s text. The readings preserved in the quire include several variants not found in the oldest manuscript with the complete text and music of the "Gaude, mater Polonia", known from the Kielce Antiphonary (Kielce, Chapter Library, Ms. 1). However, the Berlin fragment requires further research, particularly in terms of its provenance, paleography, philology, liturgy, as well as a broader examination of its material condition and production techniques.

I. Surtouts de table and the Empire style. II. Progress in research on Wilanów surtout de table. III. Provenance and functions of surtout de table components from Pierre-Philippe Thomire's workshop at the Wilanów Palace. IV. Development of Pierre-Philippe Thomire's activities. V. Elements of the Wilanów surtout de table as works of Pierre-Philippe Thomire's workshop and of his period * This article presents results of the research conducted as a part of the Master of Arts seminar at the Protection of Cultural Heritage course, Faculty of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, under supervision of Assoc. Prof. Michał F. Woźniak. I also would like to thank

Art in Times of War and Peace: Legacies of Early Modern Loot and Repair
8th - 10th May, Bibliotheca Hertziana / Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte

A category of objects that exists entirely as a function of violence, the term “loot” describes a relationship of possession, if not more specifically of dispossession. Neither an historically nor materially specific typology of artifacts, loot is instead primarily a legal category that cuts across place and time. And while it is also not an art historical classification, it is one with which the discipline of art history must constantly contend, given its repercussions for what is accessible, where, and in what condition.

Zusammenfassung: Dieser Beitrag berichtet über die Geschichte eines Buches des jüdischen Apothekers Leopold Scheyer, das, nachdem es im Jahr 2010 aus dem Bibliotheksbestand der Freien Universität Berlin ausgesondert wurde, antiquarisch erworben, sich als NS-Raubgut herausstellte und jetzt an die Erben zurückerstattet wurde. Ein sich daran anschließendes Studium der Entschädigungsakten gibt Einblick in die Praxis der Wiedergutmachung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in den Nachkriegsjahren.

Immer wieder kam die Galerie Kühl mit den Dresdener Staatlichen Sammlungen ins Geschäft. Dieser Artikel stellt mittels einiger Beispiele dar, unter welchen Umständen dies geschah und warum der Galerist Heinrich Kühl ein angesehener Handelspartner war.

Wandalizm zabytków z perspektywy kryminologicznej Vandalism of monuments from the criminological perspective Summary: In this paper the authors discuss issues referring to the vandalism of monuments from the criminological perspective. They present the legal definition of criminal acts of vandalism. The paper begins by pointing out selected etiological factors. The main focus of the paper is on the phenomenology of vandalism of monuments. In this part, the specific forms of monument vandalism which appear very often in northeastern Poland (Warmia, Masuria, Podlasie) are characterised. Furthermore, the paper presents the phenomenology of issues such as: ideological vandalism, vandalism of archaeological monuments, vandalism by omission, and vandalism of cultural landscape. By confronting linguistic and doctrinal definitions of vandalism with the phenomenon as it occurs in practice, the authors create their own definition of the vandalism of monuments.

Zagrożenie dziedzictwa kulturowego przestępczościąanaliza wydarzeń w 2019 roku Criminal Threats to the National Heritagean Analysis of the Events of 2019 Summary: There are a variety of methods that may be used in the analysis of crimes against cultural heritage which allow us to determine the level of risk. A comprehensive study covering all instances of crime against cultural goods during the period of one year allows us to note tendencies in criminals' behaviour and help develop methods of counteracting similar crimes in the future. Based on the results of several such case studies, it is then possible to assess the risk of crime against national cultural heritage in a much more appropriate manner and minimise its occurrence. This paper presents selected cases of crimes against cultural heritage that occurred in 2019.

Habent sua fata libelli. Okupacyjny rynek sztuki w Warszawie a własność żydowska Wspólny fotogra iczny portret trzech mężczyzn 1. Ich podobieństwo izyczne nie budzi wątpliwości-to bracia. Elegancko ubrani, patrzą ze spokojem i godnością w obiektyw aparatu. Ten po lewej stronie, lekko już łysiejący, ale z imponującymi wąsami, przewiązany dwubarwną korporacyjną szarfą, jest najstarszy. Kilka lat młodszy po prawej stronie; w klapę garnituru wpiął jakąś odznakę, w lewej ręce trzyma ni to zwój, ni to wąską tubę, której górny koniec nie zmieścił się w kadrze. Między nimi siedzi wsparty na poręczy fotela najmłodszy z nich; powagi dodają mu ciemna broda i skupione spojrzenie. Tło sceny stanowi dyskretnie wzorzysta tkanina, zapewne znacznej wartości. Nie wiadomo, z jakiej okazji wykonano ten uroczysty wizerunek. Jego bohaterem wydaje się zajmujący centrum fotogra ii najmłodszy z braci, choć niewykluczone, że w ten sposób chciano jedynie okazać mu specjalny szacunek jako wiernemu nakazom religii żydowskiej. Tylko on bowiem zgodnie z nimi zachował ob ity zarost; dwaj pozostali są starannie ogoleni. Także datowanie zdjęcia jest nieznane, ale zapewne wykonano je pod koniec pierwszej wojny światowej lub tuż po odzyskaniu przez Polskę niepodległości.

El avance de la jurisdicción federal sobre el patrimonio cultural mexicano suele explicarse como un proceso exitoso y lineal donde “el Estado” pugnó por ampliar su potestad y proteger a los vestigios de todo riesgo.  La realidad está bastante lejos de esta afirmación, pues los desdibujamientos entre la custodia estatal y el coleccionismo en el México del siglo XX dieron lugar a figuras de facto que proliferaron en un contexto caracterizado por legislaciones y estructuras institucionales ambiguas, que consintieron un aumento exponencial del saqueo arqueológico.
Entretejiendo los aspectos legales con el estudio de un expolio en Teotihuacán, y mediante la exhaustiva revisión de fuentes legales, bibliográficas, documentales, hemerográficas y vivas; Rita Sumano pone al descubierto los intrincados mecanismos sociales, políticos y académicos que dieron lugar a la ley vigente.  La presente obra, ganadora de la Mención Honorífica del Premio INAH “Francisco Javier Clavijero”, provee a historiadores, juristas, antropólogos y conservadores, con un panorama multidisciplinario e innovador sobre la construcción jurídica en materia de patrimonio cultural.

In conversation with Laurel Zuckerman (Open Art Data) about digital approaches to provenance research and the Looted Art Detector (englisch)

Provenienzforschung und Digital Humanities
Konzeption und Organisation: Prof. Dr. Meike Hopp, Fachbereich Digitale Provenienzforschung / Digital Provenance am Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Historische Urbanistik, TU Berlin 07.07.2021

This article seeks to introduce a brief description of the
rules of protection of cultural heritage goods in the Spanish Law,
using the example of a mediatic case of illicit trade, where the regulations
of civil law, criminal law, and administrative law were applied
and where the freedoms inherent in the right of ownership collided
with the rules on properties of cultural interest. First, it provides an
overview of the Spanish cultural heritage law, beginning with the
constitutional mandate of assuming and promoting the protection
of Spanish cultural heritage, and thereafter focusing on the concept
of private ownership and its limits, in accordance with the social
function of all property rights under the 1978 Spanish Constitution.
Second, it describes a well-known case of illicit trade, focused on
a valuable painting by Pablo Picasso. The work Cabeza de mujer
joven (Head of a young woman) belonged to a private owner who
decided to sell it internationally, using the services of a well-known
auction house. When the required permission for exportation was
denied by the Spanish public administration, the owner commenced
a court proceeding aimed at changing the decision, but also planned to send the painting abroad using a yacht on his property. Thirdly,
the article’s conclusion reflects on the level of severity of the Spanish
legislation as applied in the case, in the context of the balance
between cultural heritage protection and the freedom of disposition
inherent to the right of property ownership.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the development of educational and scientific activities in Ukraine aimed at studying the history of Islamic art. The vigorous flowering of science and creative activities of the Ukrainian intelligentsia were suppressed by the repressions of the Soviet authorities. Only in times of independence (at the beginning of the 21st century) did a gradual revival of Oriental science begin and interest in Eastern culture and creativity of other indigenous nations in Ukraine kinder.

https://www.politika.io/fr/article/zurichs-buhrle-scandal-in-context
[Im PDF sind die Fussnotenverknüpfungen nicht aktiv.]

Dieser Artikel aus der Zeitschrift "Passés Futurs" schildert den Skandal, der auf die Eröffnung des Chipperfield-Annexes des Zürcher Kunsthauses im Herbst 2021 folgte. Im Zentrum stehen die Sammlung Bührle, die verdrängte Vergangenheit und die unterlassene Provenienzforschung. Es wird gezeigt, wie Stadt und Kanton Zürich mit dieser Situation umgehen. Zum Schluss wird darauf hingewiesen, dass die Schweiz, die nach wie vor eine zentrale und weitgehend unregulierte Drehscheibe für Kunstwerke ist, auch in Zukunft Probleme in diesem Bereich haben wird.

In 2021, the inauguration of the Bührle collection in the newly built Kunsthaus-Annex in Zurich triggered a serious scandal revolving around Nazi-looted art and failed provenance research. This article retraces the causes and consequences of that controversy, in which several longer-term developments synergistically converged. The 1980s saw a tremendous expansion of international art markets and 1998, the Washington Conference set new standards for dealing with persecution-related seizure of property. The article highlights how Zurich is tackling this crisis and assumes that Switzerland, still a central hub for works of art, will continue to have problems in this field in the future.

Found Footage as Counter-ethnography Scenes from the Occupation in Gaza and the Films of Basma Alsharif Often signified by maps presenting cutoff zones and liminal spaces, Gaza is a place many of us visit only through its mediation. Our understanding of the place and the people who live there is enriched by its images, especially those created by Palestinian and Palestine-solidarity filmmakers and artists. At film festivals and in classes, we study documentary, experimental, and (some) narrative films that have come to constitute a body of Gazan cinema, supplementing and countering the on-off flow of corporate mainstream media images by which Gaza has largely been defined. One could consider this body of cinema part of an archive-looted, guarded, and hybrid (Haugbolle 2020, 7-19)-in which there is a special place for found footage films, though they are few and far between. This chapter examines found footage films by two singular filmmakers from contrasting time periods-Mustafa Abu Ali of the Palestinian revolutionary cinema and Basma Alsharif of the millennial art house biennale film economy. The work of Abu Ali and that of Alsharif are distinct in many ways, not least of which is the latter's use of

The catalogue documents а collaborative  Ukrainian museum exhibition project that took place in the Khanenko Museum (Kyiv) in November 2017 – February 2018. Participating collections: The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, National Museum of the History of Ukraine, National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Preserve.

The focal point of the project was the concept of king's charisma in the art of medieval and early modern Iran. Being fundamental to the ancient Iranian culture, the idea of charisma as a gift of the highest mystical power and happy destiny of a ruler has retained its significance in the Muslim era of Iranian history.
About 70 selected works by the medieval and early-modern Iranian artist and artisans invite to feel the vibrant energy of the Iranian idea of charisma through the truly infinite richness of its semantic and visual appeals. Exhibition curator and editor of the catalogue:  Hanna Rudyk,
PhD, Curator of Islamic collection, Deputy Director General, The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts

Artnapping rozumiany bywa ogólnie jako "uprowadzenie" dzieła sztuki, aby uzyskać okup za jego zwrot. Fenomen ten jest dość słabo zbadany naukowo, a nadto-uogólniając-raczej rzadko rozpoznawany, ścigany i osądzany w praktyce funkcjonowania organów postępowania karnego. Wiedza o artnapping'u i jego sprawcach jest aktualnie w istocie fragmentaryczna. Na ogół obiektami stanowiącymi przedmiot zaboru i będącymi "zakładnikami" tych, którzy formułują żądania finansowe w zamian za zwrot takich obiektów, są dzieła sztuki malarskiej. Obrazy, które są cenne w wymiarze kulturowym i materialnym, trudno jest wprowadzić na rynek sztuki, choćby nawet na jego nielegalny obszar. Żądanie okupu za zwrot uprzednio zabranego dzieła sztuki mogło zatem pojawić się w przestrzeni zjawisk społecznie negatywnych jako naturalna konsekwencja braku możliwości sprzedaży takiego dzieła, zarówno na rynku sztuki legalnym, jak i nielegalnym. Artnapping wydaje się być zjawiskiem przestępnym zyskującym na popularności i cechującym się znacznym potencjałem rozwojowym, zwłaszcza w świecie przestępczości zorganizowanej. Zakładana dochodowość artnapping'u bywa kusząca, a towarzyszące osiągnięciu zysku materialnego z tego procederu ryzyka mogą być potraktowane jako koszty, które w kalkulacjach przestępnych (ekonomicznie racjonalnych) mogą się po prostu opłacać.

This paper looks at key elements of global culture that are driving a new paradigm shift in museums causing them to question their raison d'être, their design and physical space, recognizing the need to accommodate visitor interaction and participation, and to reprioritize institutional outcomes and goals reexamining their priorities. As heritage sharing in online spaces reaches across national, political, and social boundaries on platforms and networks, this has been driven by museum engagement with Internet life during the pandemic. Museum relationships and interactions with communities both local and global, continue to challenge core values and precepts, leading to radical changes in how museums define their roles and responsibilities. In this new cultural landscape, museums are responding to human digital identity in a tidal wave of human interactions on the Internet, from social media to online sharing of images and videos. This is revealing shared perspectives on cultural...

L'Osservatorio Internazionale Archeomafie bandisce il concorso di partecipazione al numero XV (2023) della rivista "Archeomafie" (ISSN 2036-4539), inserita nell'elenco delle Riviste Scientifiche dall'Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca (Delibera ANVUR n. 17 del 20/02/2013 ai sensi del DM 76/2012) e pubblicata in collaborazione con Liberarcheologia e con Simera Lab.

The Story of an Ethiopian Icon" is the subtitle of an article on an article published on a website 1 promoting the return of objects taken from Maqdala in today's Ethiopia. Under the heading "The Treasure" it gives a summary of the history of a specific painting which is indeed fascinating, referred to in Ethiopian as the Kwǝr'atä rǝ'ǝsu. 2 This article will follow the different stages in the reception and interpretation of this object, and explore the genealogy of the story, its sources, their dependability and the varying historiographical approaches. The web page supplies several references. It is mainly based on two articles by Richard

As one of the rare museum experts in Croatia, Vladimir Tkalčić was involved in events that would lead to the establishment of the Ethnographic Department of the Croatian National Museum in October 1919. Later on, during his fifteen-year service with the Museum (1919-1934), as its first keeper (Curator) and then Manager/Director (1925-1934), he continuously worked on directing and organising the professional and scientific work, covering a wide and nowadays still current range of museum activities. The article addresses two topics: Tkalčić's role in the establishment and placement of the Ethnographic Department of the Croatian National Museum in the building of the then Trade and Crafts Museum and Tkalčić's influence on the profiling of early professional activity, the emphasis being on the collection of items for the holdings.

Ethnographic collections and museums in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe offer unique perspectives on the entangled histories of imperialism and colonialism that have not been scholarly investigated to the same extent as those of Western European countries such as Britain or France. While some museums, such as the British Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum, the Musée du Quai Branly, or some objects, such as the Benin Bronzes, the Rosetta Stone, or the Koh-i-Noor diamond, have received significant attention, other contexts and objects beyond these dominant colonial contexts have been relatively neglected. However, exploring the contexts of Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe presents new challenges due to their complex historical trajectories. The collections and museums of today's nation-states came together in multifaceted ways: as part of the Habsburg, Ottoman, Prussian, or Tsarist empires or through individual collectors, scientists, trade missions, and wealthy travelers. While they might also hold objects of heightened public attention, many other cases, collections, and objects have received little attention.

Almost every week brings news of another major European museum agreeing to return looted art. Since the 2000s we have grown somewhat accustomed to the headlines describing a ceremonial return to its original owners of a painting looted in the Holocaust, a process that took decades to develop and was initially met with considerable resistance in the art world and in the countries where this art was displayed. 1 In the past few years, however, building in part on the perceived success of Holocaust art restitution but also on the increased visibility and impact of national and global social movements demanding racial justice and institutional decolonisation, major international museums have come under ever stronger pressure to return art looted as part of colonial occupations. Perhaps the most organised of the current campaigns is the campaign to return the so-called 'Benin Bronzes'a vast collection of various artifacts looted from the Kingdom of Benin (in today's Nigeria) and dispersed across major international museums, most prominently the British Museum in London, the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, and the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, among others. Since 2020, a number of museums have pledged to return their holdings of Benin Bronzes and restitute them to Nigeria, where a major new museum is being built to display them in Benin City. All of this activity has also reenergised perhaps the most famous case for restitutionthe movement to return the Parthenon 'Elgin' marbles from the British Museum to the Acropolis in Athens. Much of this new momentum owes to the painstaking work developed by historians and art historians in determining the parameters of provenance and restitution in the context of looted Holocaust art. It is on the back of this work that the Washington (1998) and Terezin (2009) conferences on Holocaust era assets developed a fairly robust international regime that provided a normative and legal template for contemporary colonial-era restitution cases. And while this legal framework exists, the contemporary debates about restitution of colonial art, however, have brought about renewed attention to the resistance that former European colonial powers display in acknowledging the extensive crimes of colonial occupations, including crimes of genocide, as is the case of Germany's atrocities against the Herero and Nama in today's Namibia. The debates about art restitution, then, should be understood as proxy debates about the nature of the European colonial past and its enduring legacy. This short essay deals with only a slice of this important debate. It explores the role scholarshistorians, art historians, museum professionals, as well as genocide scholarshave played and continue to play in the contested field of international art restitution. After briefly outlining some major juncture points in the history of international art restitution after the Second World War and identifying a few (not nearly all or even most) key scholars involved, I conclude with a broader consideration of the role of the scholar and the ethics of international art restitution.

Ameryka Łacińska jest regionem o niezwykle bogatej i zróżnicowanej kulturze, w którym przez wiele wieków rozwijały się wspaniałe cywilizacje. Dzieła sztuki i kultury materialnej wytworzone przez dawnych mieszkańców stanowią dziś cenne źródło wiedzy o pierwotnych mieszkańcach tej części świata, a także ważny element budowy tożsamości narodowej i regionalnej. Również kolonizacja hiszpańska pozostawiła po sobie wysoko cenione dzieła sztuki. Zarówno wytwory kultur prekolumbijskich, jak i czasów kolonialnych nie są dostatecznie chronione i stanowią przedmiot handlu na coraz większą skalę. Brak odpowiednich mechanizmów kontroli, ubóstwo, a także brak edukacji w regionach, w których występuje największe nagromadzenie cennych przedmiotów sprawia, że wiele dzieł sztuki jest nielegalnie wywożonych za granicę lub ulega zniszczeniu. Wzrostowi przemytu sprzyjają nieszczelność granic i korupcja.

Properly constructed criminal law provisions can prevent the destruction of heritage. The laws of the European Union are not an appropriate toolto reduce this phenomenon, although an analysis of criminal laws of individual countries may help in developing effective solutions in the Polish legalsystem. This article presents the criminal law solutions to protect againstthe destruction of heritage in France, Italy and Austria. Comparison of theprovisions in these European countries allows the effective scope of protection of their cultural property to be indicated and to assess the possibility ofincluding some of the standards to the Polish system of heritage protection.

Special issue : https://jahazi.co.ke/reclaiming-our-cultural-heritage/

Reclaiming Our Cultural Heritage is the name of the issue that Jahazi Journal dedicated to the restitution of cultural heritage stolen from the African continent. With 28 articles from journalists, researchers and artists, the issue is shifting the narrative on how African voices have agency in the debate to right the wrongs of the past.