Category: visual

“On December 3, 1998, 44 world governments and 13 international NGOs came together in Washington D.C. to develop a guide for dealing with Nazi-looted art. … On November 26-18, a conference in Berlin marking the 20th anniversary of these goals” — known as “the Washington Principles” — “will assess the success of these objectives. But it seems like there are some tough conversations to be had.”

“What would happen if you peeled back the layers of a masterpiece by one of art history’s greatest painters? Dead bodies might suddenly appear. Take, for example, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s large-scale festival scene, The Battle Between Carnival and Lent.”

Said one dealer who insisted on anonymity, “The last few years have not shown an opening in attitudes, but almost the opposite. … Every year, we have a few works rejected, but it is getting [to be] more and more — it makes me feel uncomfortable.”

Twenty years on, that timetable has proved much too optimistic. Nazi-looted art is still regularly restituted: high-profile cases in the past year include an Oskar Kokoschka portrait returned to the heirs of the German-Jewish dealer Alfred Flechtheim by Sweden’s Moderna Museet (and sold for a record $20.4m on 12 November at Sotheby’s in New York). Many families are still seeking pictures stolen from their forefathers in what has been called the greatest art heist of all time.

The first response to demands for restitution is simple. Concede to them. We have tons of other stuff in basements and attics. To be fair, this is starting to happen. France’s President Emmanuel Macron is legislating to “return Africa’s heritage to Africa”. The British Museum itself returns objects under permanent loan. The Benin bronzes are going to Nigeria and it has indicated a readiness to talk with Easter Island. A deeper worry is what restitution will mean to the purpose of world museums.

In the big sales, financial guarantees do – so that the New York art world can feel reassured it’s moving at least $2 billion worth of art.

A fresco of Leda and the swan is only one of many treasures revealed by an intensive effort to save a stretch along the Via del Vesuvio. “The project involves excavating and securing more than two miles of earth that border an unexcavated area of the ancient city. The archaeological remains along this front have suffered in recent years as a result of collapses and landslides caused by heavy rains.”

Um, wow. This did not go to plan: “A Belgian court proved just how unauthorised the exhibition may have been by ordering bailiffs to seize the art, valued at over £12m. After five hours, and some careful handling, the pieces, including a version of the famous stencil mural Girl With Balloon, were driven away at midnight to an unidentified secure location, where they will sit out of the public eye until another court hearing in January.”