The signing of the Washington Declaration in 1998 marked the beginning of a new phase in the examination of the Nazi era – in particular, the confiscation of art and cultural assets as a result of Nazi persecution. At the same time, it marked the starting point for the establishment of a new field of research: systematic provenance research focusing on the period between 1933 and 1945.
Almost three decades later, provenance research has evolved internationally in terms of methodology, institutions, and theoretic approaches, shaped by national conditions. Today, it is firmly established in museums and collections as a practice-oriented field focused on the restitution of art and cultural objects confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution—including the subsequent research into their heirs—and as an independent, transdisciplinary field of research in the university context. The field increasingly relies on international cooperation, digitization, and methodological innovations in order to enhance research and to document both the transnational dislocation histories of objects and the individual life stories of their former owners as well as those involved in the confiscation of art and cultural property.
In recent years, provenance research has increasingly intersected with other contexts of injustice, including colonialism, Soviet Occupation Zone/GDR, and is subject to public demand. The examination of (global) power relations, (historical) appropriation processes, and (structural) inequalities broadens provenance research in both its content and its methodological approaches.
As a result, provenance research has not only gained scientific relevance and public visibility, but is subject of debates in context of cultural and memory politics. At the same time, however, significant structural, institutional, and political differences still persist, reflecting historical developments of individual countries.
For additional information, visit arthist.net (the source of this call): arthist.net/archive/51595
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