Current Topic: Provenance Research

Current Topic: Provenance Research, Seminar at JLU

In many collections, libraries, and museums, there are specimens of which it is not known where they came from or how they became part of the holdings. We know that among these objects there might also be those of dubious origin. Neverless, provenance research only really took off when the German Center for the Loss of Cultural Property was founded in Magdeburg in 2015.

This center provides funding for provenance research; as of February 2019, nearly 300 projects have been funded with a total of 24.5 million euros. All cultural property losses are documented as search and find reports in the Lost Art database. The initial focus was on Nazi-looted property, i.e. cultural property of Jewish ownership that had been seized under National Socialism, as well as on cultural property losses from the period of Soviet occupation and the GDR. In April 2018, cultural property from colonial backgrounds was added as an additional focus.

The topic of what to consider in provenance research is the subject of a block seminar led by Prof. Dr. Cornelia Weber (Head of the Coordination Office for Academic University Collections in Germany from 2012-2019) that will take place at JLU in the summer semester of 2019. In the seminar, students will learn which methods are available to assess whether objects originate from unlawful contexts—this includes specimens of human origin, non-European and ancient cultural objects, and illegally imported natural history objects. The question of the historical responsibility of scientific collections, museums, libraries and archives and how this can be communicated to the public is also discussed.

In April 2019, a panel discussion on the topic took place at the State Museum in Mainz. Just last year the anthology Nicht nur Raubkunst! Sensible Dinge in Museen und universitäre Sammlungen (Not Only Stolen Art! Sensitive Things in Museums and University Collections), edited by Anna-Maria Brandstetter and Verena Hierholzer, came out. The publisher has made the volume available as an open source document: https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/downloads/openAccess/OA_978-3-8471-0808-5.pdf

JLU's university library systematically researched its holdings for Nazi-looted property several years ago. The results were presented to the public in an exhibition that was on display in the library's exhibition room from September 2012 to February 2013. All books identified as looted property are listed in the online catalog and in the Lost Art database. The publication of the research results is available as an open source PDF: http://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2014/10992/pdf/NSRaubgut_2014.pdf