Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections:
A research guide
with a foreword by Edmund de Waal
When we look at the artworks on display in museums, there is always a real possibility that some of these objects once belonged to victims of the Nazis – a possibility that has remained unacknowledged for far too long. Countless artworks were seized or forcibly sold, with many ending up in museum collections around the world, even in countries which actively fought to defeat Nazi Germany.
Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections equips readers with the knowledge and strategies essential for confronting the shadow of the Nazi past in museum collections. Jacques Schuhmacher provides the vital historical orientation required to understand the Nazis’ complex campaign of systematic dispossession and extermination, and highlights the current environment in which museum-based Nazi-era provenance research takes place. This book introduces readers to the research methods and resources that can be used to reveal the moving stories behind the objects.
Provenance research not only seeks to recover erased names and experiences and to reinsert them into a historical record, but also to ensure that the Nazis’ actions and worldview do not remain unchallenged in the galleries and storerooms of our museums today.
Endorsements
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'Jacques Schuhmacher has written a hugely powerful, instructive and important book, tracing the historic responsibility of the museum world in addressing the legacy of Nazi-era loot. Fluently combining extensive historical scholarship with his expert understanding of investigative tools, this study uses compelling examples of restitution cases to show how provenance research should be done and, crucially, why it must be done.’
Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum
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‘It is crucially important that we continue researching the history of ownership of our museum collections. Only then can historic wrongs begin to be rectified. By providing both a broad overview and individual case studies, Schuhmacher offers invaluable guidance on the complexities of Nazi-era provenance research.'
Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, Chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC) Spoliation Working Group
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‘A timely work drawing upon first-hand experience in Nazi-era provenance research, providing a unique insight into the difficulties thrown up by the period. This book is sure to become a point of reference for those working in the field.’
His Honour Judge Baumgartner, Deputy Chair, UK Spoliation Advisory Panel
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‘Allowing readers to understand the complex world of Nazi-era provenance research, this book is both a guide and a moving work of research in its own right. Jacques Schuhmacher is uniquely placed to write this book and to further the goal of material restitution.’
Professor Dan Stone, Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London, and member of the UK Advisory Group on Spoliation Matters
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‘A timely and user-friendly addition to the Provenance literature. Schuhmacher provides a how-to manual (complete with website addresses) and a much-needed clarification of immediate post-war restitution efforts. A must-have for all museum and art-world professionals.’
Lynn H. Nicholas, Author of The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War
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‘This is the place to start for anyone wanting to know about provenance research into looted Nazi-era works of art, or wanting to do the research themselves.’
Lord Inglewood, Chairman of the UK Advisory Group on Spoliation Matters
War Crimes Trials and Investigations:
A multi-disciplinary introduction
with Jonathan Waterlow
This edited volume represents the first multi-disciplinary introduction to the study of war crimes trials and investigations.
It introduces readers to the numerous disciplines engaged with this complex subject, including: Forensic Anthropology, Economics and Anthropometrics, Legal History, Violence Studies, International Criminal Justice, International Relations, and Moral Philosophy.
The contributors are experts in their respective fields and the chapters highlight each discipline’s major trends, debates, methods and approaches to mass atrocity, genocide, and crimes against humanity, as well as their interactions with adjacent disciplines.
Case studies illustrate how the respective disciplines work in practice, including examples from the Allied Hunger Blockade, WWII, the Guatemalan and Spanish Civil Wars, the Former Yugoslavia, and Uganda.
Including bibliographical essays to offer readers crucial orientation when approaching the specialist literature in each case, this edited collection equips readers with what they need to know in order to navigate a complex, and until now, deeply fragmented field.
Reviews
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‘The editors are to be congratulated for their valiant efforts to both construct and then align such a multi- and interdisciplinary text which is both informative and thought provoking.’
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
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‘thought-provoking and contributes to the interdisciplinary research on the topic of international justice’
International Affairs (Chatham House)
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‘an important addition to the existing literature, too often confined within disciplinary boundaries’
Human Remains and Violence
Chapters
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Museums and the Restitution of ‘Spoils of War’, in: Timothy Clack and Mark Dunkley (eds.), Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Conflict. Past, Propaganda, Parade, London: Routledge, 2022.
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British Museums and Holocaust-Era Provenance Research, in: Ruth-Redmond Cooper (ed.), Museums and the Holocaust. Second Edition, Institute of Art and Law, 2021.
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Concealed Histories: Researching Nazi Looting in the Gilbert Collection, in: Alice Minter (ed.), Miniatures in Motion. Highlights from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection, V&A, 2021.