Decades later, owners still dispute stolen art

The Holocaust shook the world more than half a century ago, but its grim legacy still inspires disputes today as collectors argue over the rightful owners of artwork stolen by the Nazis from European Jews.
Several area art curators discussed the artwork that was looted from the homes of Holocaust victims during World War II and resold without consideration of rightful owners. Organized by the BU Art Law Society, the discussion drew an audience of about 80 attendees to the Boston University School of Law Tuesday.
Monica Dugot, International Director of Restitution for Christie’s auction house, said the issue is difficult because there are often ‘two innocents’ involved ‘-‘- the heirs of the original owners and the current owners who usually acquired the work legally. Nazi theft, which ‘amounts to the greatest theft of art ever known,’ involves plenty of emotional attachment, she said.
‘There is no clear and binding law that covers restitution today,’ Dugot said. ‘Looted art would have passed through many hands over the past 70 years, and it can be very difficult to trace.’
Artwork with questionable origins presents both ethical and legal dilemmas for museums, art sellers and private collectors, moderator Thomas Kline said.
‘ ‘With art, there is no title that can easily be identified the way you would have, for example, a [Vehicle Identification Number] for a car,’ Kline said. ‘It’s the rare case in which everything that needs to be known is known, so decisions have to be made with a certain amount of uncertainty and risk.’
Lucian Simmons, Sotheby’s auction house senior vice president, said the best thing to do is open a dialogue and push for negotiations outside of courtrooms.
‘The more we do this, the more we see that nothing is black and white,’ Simmons said. ‘Everything is gray.’
‘ Provenance research, or research about a piece of art’s origin, begins with inquiries into the donor’s history and expands to examinations of archives, the work itself and documents relating to the work, Fogg Art Museum assistant curator Sarah Kianovsky said. These legalities can often negatively affect museum with looted work on display.
‘ ‘Demonstrating care in this research helps to maintain the public’s trust in our institutions,’ she said.
The research is extremely time-consuming and expensive, Kianovsky said, and there is no federal funding to assist museums with this type of work.
‘ BU Art Law Society Co-President Beth Wolfson said her 2-year-old organization initiated the event because of a similar event Kline moderated last year. She said she wanted to focus on large art institutions like Sotheby’s and Christie’s for the event and hone in on restitution.
‘This event covers a broad range of interests, and it’s a great opportunity for students interested in museum studies or art law to meet and have a conversation about how art institutions can prevent this problem from occurring in the first place and then how to properly deal with it when it arises,’ she said.
BU Law student Patrick Jiang said he found the discussion interesting, because while the dilemma was presented in law forum, it extends beyond legalities.
‘It seems like a topic where law isn’t the best solution for the problem anymore,’ he said.