Restitution at Christie’s

A quarter of a century of the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art

THIS YEAR MARKS the 25th anniversary of the Washington Conference Principles, an international agreement that opened a new era of transparency with respect to art lost or stolen during the Nazi period between 1933 and 1945.

“One of the main tools of oppression on a cultural level by Hitler and the Nazi party was the looting, confiscation, or appropriation through (only apparently) less malign methods of private possessions from the Jewish population,” says Richard Aronowitz, Global Head of Restitution at Christie’s. “It was a key tool, both of oppression and a way to raise money for the Nazis. Jewish people were forced to give up their possessions, having first made inventories of their collections, pursuant to tax declarations or formal declarations of assets, or they had to pay punitive exit taxes to get out of a country, for which they’d have to sell their assets.”

Restitution is defined as “to return an object, artifact, or collectible to its rightful owner, in most cases their heir, whether they are an individual, family, museum, state collection, or national government.”

Christie’s Restitution department engages with the legacy of Nazi-era art theft, looking at nearly every object that comes up for sale, conducting provenance research, and examining transfers of ownership between 1933 and 1945. If this raises a concern, the team launches an investigation. “The Washington Principles are the bedrock of the work that Christie’s Restitution team has done for many years: research into the 1933–1945 ownership history of artworks that Christie’s plans to offer for sale,” says Aronowitz. “When we discover a loss, or a malign change of ownership, or a forced sale that was not addressed and remedied after World War II, the Washington Principles gives parties the framework to address these issues, even many decades after they occurred.”

Aronowitz and his team have organized Reflecting on Restitution, a global program in which scholars, legal experts, researchers, and interested parties will meet to share and discuss important stories, ideas, and perspectives.

In Vienna in May, lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg will talk about his work to get restitution for the heirs to Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which was dramatized in the 2015 film Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren.

In the summer a walking tour in Berlin will focus on locations where Jewish art dealers and galleries stood, as well as sites where looted art was stored, and there will be a panel discussion at Christie’s London focusing on provenance research.

In the fall, Christie’s New York will stage a panel on the evolution of restitution, and in December there will be a one-day conference in Tel Aviv to close the program.

Some events will be live-streamed or recorded for those unable to attend. For more about Christie’s and restitution, and for details of events, visit christies.com Richard Aronowitz is a leading authority on restitution and joined Christie’s in 2022