This event has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 9, 6-7:30 p.m. MST

As the Nazis devised and implemented the Final Solution, they also expropriated a wide range of assets from Jews across Europe — real estate, investments and mobile assets. This massive theft included several hundred thousand works of art, the result of confiscation and forced sales within the Third Reich and in occupied territories. The aftermath of Nazi art plunder continues to present legal and ethical challenges in the art world as the heirs of Jewish victims seek restitution of looted paintings and other objects now held by museums, galleries or private collectors. 

This event is co-sponsored by DU's Center for Art Collection Ethics (ACE), the Holocaust Awareness Institute (HAI), the Holocaust Museum Houston and the Program in Jewish Studies at Rice University.

Meet Our Presenter

Dr. Elizabeth Campbell is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Denver and Director of the Center for Art Collection Ethics. She is the author of Defending National Treasures: French Art and Heritage under Vichy (Stanford University Press, 2011). With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, her forthcoming book (Oxford University Press) examines the recovery of Nazi-looted art, comparing restitution practices in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In all three cases, postwar governments held unclaimed works for display in state-run museums, extending the dispossession of Jewish owners wrought by the Nazis and their collaborators. 

This lecture is the first in a series. Stay tuned for details on a panel discussion on Tuesday, March 16, 6-7:30 p.m. MST, on “Legal and Ethical Challenges in Art Collection Stewardship.”

The March 16 panelists will include:

• Renée Albiston, Associate Museum Director of the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art in Denver, and provenance researcher at the Denver Art Museum.
• Nicholas O'Donnell, Partner, Sullivan and Worcester, in Boston, who recently appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court representing plaintiffs in Nazi-era art restitution cases.
• Gus Kopriva, Owner of Redbud Gallery in Houston.

The discussion will be moderated by Elizabeth Campbell. Registration information coming soon.

Image above: A church turned repository in Ellingen, Germany, April 24, 1945. Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, MD.