Publisher's Synopsis
Explores the ongoing debate over the vast amounts of cultural property displaced as a result of World War II. Not only paintings, sculpture and decorative arts, but also archaeological artefacts, rare books and manuscripts, musical instruments and scores, religious objects and memorabilia of every description were seized by the Nazis, taken by individuals, or removed to the USSR by the Soviet army by the end of the war.;Fifty years later, lost and stolen objects continue to appear on the international art market and in private, state and museum collections, including Impressionist masterpieces, old master drawings and treasures such as the gold excavated by Schliemann in Troy. Questions of ownership divide the art world and involve countries in acrimonious disputes that are fought in court, legislated, or negotiated by treaty.;At a three-day symposium organized by the Bard Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts in New York in 1995, a group of distinguished specialists - including diplomats, government officials and lawyers, as well as art historians and curators - took part in spirited, candid and enlightening discussions which are fully documented in this book.;Accompanying the 54 essays are remarkable illustrations, including wartime archival photographs that confirm acts of appropriation and destruction, and reproductions of still-missing artworks, such as the famous Amber Room panels from the Catherine Palace near St Petersburg, and a prized Raphael portrait. In addition, 17 key legal texts relating to the protection and return of cultural property have been included.
