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

Please note: The conference will be held in English.
The programme and further information on the sign-up process will be announced soon.

2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and Germany can expect to see a renewed intensification of the longstanding debate about the “right” way to commemorate this occasion. Regrettably, this debate can be expected to take place against the backdrop of Russia‘s ongoing war against Ukraine.

The consequences of the Second World War can still be felt to this day, including the wartime loss of cultural property and the widespread destruction of unique and irreplaceable masterpieces of art. But in many cases, too, art collections, libraries and archives that were moved to safety in order to protect them from the impact of warfare were never returned. Unlike in the 1990s, this issue is clearly no longer a high political priority.

At its 2025 annual conference, the German Lost Art Foundation will focus on the return of cultural property that was relocated during or as a result of the Second World War, presenting studies by national and international experts on historical developments as well as statements on the current status in this area. Among other things, the conference will look at early efforts to return cultural property, particularly from Jewish ownership in the (immediate) post-war period, and also the documentation of wartime losses.

The event will also highlight the fact that the Foundation’s original predecessor institution – the Koordinierungsstelle der Länder für die Rückführung von Kulturgütern (the Coordination Office of the Federal States for the Return of Cultural Property) – was founded in 1994 for precisely this purpose.

The conference will be livestreamed on the Foundation‘s YouTube channel. See https://kulturgutverluste.de for details of the programme and sign-up.

Your team at the German Lost Art Foundation