Past Event

Saturday, April 29, 2000

Provenance & Due Diligence

This workshop / conference, organized by the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) in collaboration with NYU, addressed the legal and artistic issues involved in establishing the provenance of a work of art and in otherwise exercising due diligence in acquiring art. Particular reference was made to art looted before and during WW II and to antiquities.

NOTE: This conference was eligible for 8.0 CLE credit hours.

Conference proceedings were edited for a special double issue of
IFAR Journal, Volume 3, Numbers 3 & 4. It is available for $20 plus postage.

Copies of the following reference material (approximately 400 pages) prepared by IFAR and distributed to conference attendees are now available as a package from IFAR:

–  Suggested Websites for Provenance Research (including World War II era), Art and Cultural Property Law, and Art Theft -- Provided by IFAR.
–  Cultural Property Contact List -- Provided by IFAR
–  Sources for World War II Provenance Research at the Frick Art Reference Library -- Provided by the Frick Art Reference Library
–  Provisional List of Names Mentioned in Relation to Art Looting During the Holocaust Era -- Provided by the Commission for Art Recovery.
–  International Regulations Concerning the Export of Cultural Property: An Update -- Provided by IFAR.
–  UNESCO Handbook of National Regulations Concerning the Export of Cultural Property, 1988 -- Provided to IFAR by UNESCO.

To place an order, please see our Resource Packets page.

IFAR is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for a generous grant in partial support of this program.

Craig Hugh Smyth, Member, IFAR Art Advisory Council; Director, Central Art Collecting Point, Munich, MFA&A, 1945-51; Former Director, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

Greg Bradsher, Director, Holocaust Era Assets Records Project, National Archives

Robert Cohon, Curator of Ancient Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Hector Feliciano, Journalist; Author, The Lost Museum

Herbert Hirsch, Chair, Committee on Art Law, The Assn of the Bar of the City of New York

Sarah Jackson, Director, Historic Claims, The Art Loss Register

Jack A. Josephson, Egyptologist, Collector, Research Associate, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

Constance Lowenthal, Director, Commission for Art Recovery, World Jewish Congress

Peter Marks, Private Dealer, Past President, National Association of Dealers in Ancient, Oriental, and Primitive Art

John Henry Merryman, Sweitzer Professor of Law Emeritus, Stanford University Law School; Co-Author, Law, Ethics, and the Visual Arts

Linda Pinkerton, esq., Former General Counsel, The J. Paul Getty Trust and Christie's

Inge Reist, Chief of Collections Development and Research, Frick Art Reference Library

Alexander Shapiro, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York

Stephen E. Weil, esq., Emeritus Senior Scholar, Center for Museum Studies, Smithsonian; Co-Author, Art Law