Conference 2025 „1945 – The struggle over art. Cultural property between loss, relocation and restitution“ – all contributions

Shortly before the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, the German Lost Art Foundation addressed the cultural losses of this catastrophe caused by Germany at its spring conference. The conference "1945 - The struggle over art. Cultural property between loss, relocation and restitution," held on March 31 and April 1, 2025, at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Haus Unter den Linden, deliberately took a pan-European, rather than a German, perspective.

To the program

To the press release

To accompany the conference, the Foundation dedicated its 2024 periodical "Provenienz & Forschung" to the topic of "1945". The volume can be ordered (print edition) from Sandstein Verlag Dresden and downloaded as an electronic edition in open access from perspectivia.net under DOI 10.25360/01-2024-00010. It’s available in German language only.

The conference was broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the German Lost Art Foundation.

All contributions are in English.

Opening remarks

• Reinhard Altenhöner | Deputy General Director, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
• Claudia Roth | Minister of State for Culture and the Media
• Gilbert Lupfer | Executive Chairman, German Lost Art Foundation

Panel 1: Handling cultural property formerly in Jewish ownership after 1945

Presenter: Uwe Hartmann | German Lost Art Foundation

• Borbála Klacsmann | University College Dublin: “Justice or compromise? Early restitution in Hungary“
• Anna Holzer-Kawałko | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Dubnow-Institute: “Territorial changes, population transfers, and cultural restitution: German-Jewish libraries in postwar Lower Silesia“
• Jana Jirásková | Documentation Centre for Property Transfers of the Cultural Assets of WW II Victims: “Restitution of Jewish cultural property in post-war Czechoslovakia. Its challenges and limits“

Panel 2: Evacuation facilities and central collection depots

Presenter: Fine Kugler | German Lost Art Foundation

• Anna Ziemlewska | Museum of King Jan III‘s Palace at Wilanów: „The Wilanów Museum during the war: not only looting“
• Claire Bonnotte Khelil | Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon: “The return from deposits of French museum collections: the story of a national victory“
• Iris Schmeisser | Städel Museum, Frankfurt (Main): “Off site: The Städel Museum’s collection during the war and the American occupation“
• Sebastian Finsterwalder | Berlin Central and Regional Library: “Enemy library and Salvage Office - An unprecedented dispersal of Nazi-looted property in Berlin before and after 1945“

Panel 3: Returns and compensation after 1945

Presenter: Fine Kugler | German Lost Art Foundation

• Shlomit Steinberg | The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: “From the looters‘ depots to the Israel Museum‘s walls: 1942-1950“
• Gitta Ho | Ministère de la Culture, Paris: “A question of point of view? On the post-1945 handling of Wolfgang Krüger‘s art acquisitions in occupied France“
• Darleen Pappelau | University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg, Frankfurt (Main): “Restitutions of the Offenbach Archival Depot and its remainders“
• Bettina Farack | Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem: “Participatory provenance research: Lessons from the Library of Lost Books“

Panel 4: Losses of cultural property before and after the end of the war

Presenter: Susanne Meyer-Abich | German Lost Art Foundation

• Anastasia Yurchenko | Independent provenance researcher: “Concept of equivalents for cultural war losses of the USSR: historical and theoretical foundations“
• Frank Grelka | Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies, Frankfurt (Oder): “Overcompensation? Looted art as manifestation of Soviet occupation policies after World War II“
• Ralph Jaeckel, Anne Kuhlmann-Smirnov | Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam: “...to be kept in the museum for the duration of the war. Private collections from Berlin and the surrounding Province of Brandenburg during and after World War II“

Panel 5: Documenting and reconstructing losses

Presenter: Susanne Meyer-Abich | German Lost Art Foundation

• Uwe Hartmann | German Lost Art Foundation, Magdeburg: “Caesuras and new hopes: The repatriation of cultural property displaced as a result of the war in the context of the political upheavals after 1989/90“
• Marlen Katz | Friedrich Schiller University Jena: “The critical potential of provenance research. An exemplary analysis of current exhibitions with references to wartime losses“
• Clara Blomeyer, Jacob Franke, Martin Zavesky | Hamburger Kunsthalle and Dresden State Art Collections: “Cloud Computing. AI-generated skies in lost works by Caspar David Friedrich“

Afternoon Lecture

Wolfgang Eichwede | University of Bremen: “German seizure of cultural property in the Soviet Union 1941-1944 - Soviet seizure of cultural property in Germany after 1945. Research and diplomacy after the end of the Cold War“

Discussion: 80 years after the end of the war – unresolved problems in the repatriation of cultural property

Presenter: Christian Fuhrmeister | Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München

• Konstantin Akinsha | Independent researcher
• Nawojka Cieślińska-Lobkowicz | Freelance art historian and provenance researcher
• Wolfgang Eichwede | University of Bremen
• Adam Ganz | Royal Holloway University of London
• Olaf Hamann | Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
• Ulrike Schmiegelt-Rietig | Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg