International seminar “Ars Auro Prior – Restitution of Lost and Stolen Art Works” will take place this year at the University of Gdańsk, Faculty of Law and Administration on 10th December. Online participation is available.
This seminar is organized to celebrate the grand opening of Ms. Agata Perzyńska’s exhibition. In her works artist focuses on the works of art looted in Poland during the WWII. The exhibition is the effect of scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Processes connected to restitution of war losses and decolonisation and transitional justice are forcing the greatest museums all over the world, as well as private collectors in different countries, to respond to the restitution claims and regard public opinion and pressure.
Analyzing just the law became insufficient to solve the so-called hard cases, which are restitution cases. It calls for an expanded approach that leads to return, compensation, or at least apologies. Hence, the issue of the restitution of cultural property is a segment of the considerations that are touched on by the concept of transnational justice. The concept should concentrate on the victims of the acts mentioned above and on the possibility of compensation, even if it would be just symbolic and the victims themselves are no longer alive. The key aspects of seminar is historical illegality or historical injustice. Together with legal aspects, the other conditions like moral and political are taken into account.
Coming to terms with the past encounters certain limitations in the reality of democratic states. In each historical period there have been frequent violations of the ownership rights. Sometimes they were against the interest of specific parties — the state, private owners, groups of minor cultures.
Online registration:
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c2ab9572-7bf2-4bbd-ba78-92d51e222142@2d9a5a9f-69b7-4940-a1a6-af55f35ba069
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