CONF: Dispossessions of Cultural Objects (Ljubljana, 19-21 Mar 18)

France Stele Institute of Art History, ZRC SAZU
Prešeren Hall SAZU, Novi trg 4
Ljubljana

March 19 – 21, 2018

Dispossessions of Cultural Objects between 1914 and 1989/1991: The Alpe Adria Region in Comparative Perspectives

TransCultAA International Conference

PROGRAMME

Monday, March 19th

14.00
Welcome and introduction

Mimi Urbanc, Deputy Director, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana
Davor Kozmus, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Republic of Slovenia (HERA)
Iain B. Whyte, Research Committee of the International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art (RIHA)
Christian Fuhrmeister, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München, Project Leader, Transfer of Cultural Objects in the Alpe Adria Region in the 20th Century
Barbara Murovec, Director, France Stele Institute of Art History ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, Slovenian Principal Investigator, Transfer of Cultural Objects in the Alpe Adria Region in the 20th Century

Chair: Christian Fuhrmeister
14.30 Introductory lecture: Michael Wedekind: Translocations in a Contested Space
15.15 Patrizia Dragoni and Antonija Mlikota: Politics and Museum Management in Interwar Zadar
15.35 Discussion

16.00 Coffee break

Chair: Meike Hopp
16.30 Cathleen Giustino: Unpacking the Case of Dr. Václav Wagner: Struggles over Confiscated Cultural Property and Heritage in Postwar Bohemia
16.50 Marcela Rusinko: Dispossessing Art Collectors in Communist Czechoslovakia
17.10 Kristina Uhlíková and Jan Uhlík: Confiscated Monuments of the German Minority in Czechoslovakia
17.30 Discussion

18.15 Where Have All the Artworks Gone? Dispossessions and Translocations of Cultural Objects in Slovenia during the Second World War

Exhibition opening

19.15 Reception

Tuesday, March 20th

9.00 Podium: Dispossession and Art Market: Institutional Projects
(organised by the Research Committee of the International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art [RIHA])

– France Stele Institute of Art History ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, and its TransCultAA partners (Ljerka Dulibić, Christian Fuhrmeister, Donata Levi, Barbara Murovec): Transfer of Cultural Objects in the Alpe Adria Region in the 20th Century

– Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (Gail Feigenbaum):
1. Provenance Index
2. Project on Art Dealers and the American Art Market
3. The German Sales Project and its Relevance to the Dispossession Theme

– Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), Paris (Ariane James-Sarazin and Célia Fleury): Objects Lost in Times of War in French Public Collections: Questions and Methods

– Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich (Meike Hopp):
1. Reconstructing the late-April 1945 “Führerbau theft” and Research on the Object’s Whereabouts
2. The Photo Archive of Art Dealer Julius Böhler
3. Hugo Helbing: Annotated Catalogues
Discussion moderated by Christian Fuhrmeister and France Nerlich

11.00 Coffee break

Chair: Donata Levi
11.30 Gabriele Anderl: The Vienna Art Market between 1938 and 1945
11.50 Eva Toffali: “Trade” between Germany and Italy during Fascism: The Case of Alessandro Contini Bonacossi
12.10 Katharina Sophia Hüls: Flourishing Trade Relations between Venice and Vienna: The Activities of Art Dealer Dr. Benno Geiger (1882-1965) during the Second World War
12.30 Discussion

13.00 Lunch

Chairs: Gail Feigenbaum and Ljerka Dulibić
14.30 Dejan Ristić: The Devastation of the Collections of the National Library of Serbia during the First World War
14.50 Karin Leitner-Ruhe: A Missing Collection? Graz – Rogaška Slatina and Dobrna – Ljubljana
15.10 Renata Komić Marn and Tina Košak: For the Nation’s Welfare: Dealing with Cultural Objects in Interwar Slovenia
15.30 Iva Pasini Tržec: “Private Collections of Public Interest” in Zagreb and Their Destiny under Socialism
15.50 Discussion

16.30 Coffee break

17.00 Young Scholars’ Section
– Cristina Cudicio: The Dissolution of a Jewish Collection: The Pincherle Family in Trieste
– Anja Iskra: Safeguarding Cultural Assets in Maribor during the Second World War
– Ivan Ferenčak: From German Art Market to the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters in Zagreb: Paintings from Ante Topić Mimara’s Donation
– Maria Tischner: Erika Hanfstaengl’s Activities in Udine and Trieste from 1943 to 1945
– Doroteja Kotnik: The Ptuj Regional Museum under German Occupation
– Margherita Colusso: Paintings from a Jewish Residence: New Findings
Discussion moderated by Donata Levi and Barbara Murovec

Short break

19.00 Documentary film Memories from the Ashes (Serbia, Filmske novosti, 2016; 28 minutes)
Discussion moderated by Ljerka Dulibić and Dejan Ristić

Wednesday, March 21st

Chair: Michael Wedekind

9.00 Katja Zirnsack: The Vienna Auction House Dorotheum and the “Masse Adria”: What We Know and What We Don’t

9.20 Anneliese Schallmeiner, Daria Brasca and Albena Zlatanova: Distribution of Shipments in a Transnational Perspective

9.50 Discussion

10.15 Coffee break

Chair: Franci Lazarini

10.45 Barbara Vodopivec: The Restitution of Cultural Objects from Austria to Yugoslavia after the Second World War: Rediscovered Archival Material

11.05 Elena Franchi: Why should it be all on us Istrians to pay for a war that was lost by everyone? The Activities of the Italian Delegation for the Restitution of Cultural Assets to Yugoslavia after the Second World War

11.25 Discussion

11.45 Final plenary discussion: Where do we go from here? The Future of Dispossession Research
Moderated by Ljerka Dulibić, Christian Fuhrmeister, Donata Levi and Barbara Murovec

13.00 End of conference

The Transfer of Cultural Objects in the Alpe Adria Region in the 20th Century (TransCultAA) HERA research project is the first attempt to investigate the transfer of cultural assets in the Alpe Adria area in the 20th century. In an unprecedented transnational and collaborative way, it engages a multinational team of scholars to analyse “Uses of the Past”, in particular historical and current conflicts of ownership, patrimony, and cultural heritage. Despite its regional focus, TransCultAA examines the very concrete and material results of a genuinely European history of transfer, translocation, displacement, confiscation, looting, and theft of cultural objects. More specifically, the project asks: Who transferred or translocated which objects in the Alpe Adria region, when and why? Which explanations (if any) were – and are – given? Which narratives ensued, and why? How do archival documents (from the region and beyond, produced by victims, perpetrators, and the complicit actors in the grey zone in between) help to understand these regional and, above all, national uses of the past? These issues have all been heavily charged by propaganda for political purposes. Due to the specific characteristics of fundamental research, the collection, documentation, and analysis of archival sources play a critical role, as only factual data have the power to overcome myths, legends, and, in particular, competing nationalist narratives. The project addresses and illuminates the complexity of the phenomena at a transnational level through analytic studies of the objects present or in transition on the territory at key historical moments.

The International Conference Dispossessions of Cultural Objects between 1914 and 1989/1991 is organised by:
France Stele Institute of Art History ZRC SAZU in association with Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München, Università degli Studi di Udine and Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters – Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, and co-organised by: International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art (RIHA).

Organising Committee:
Ljerka Dulibić (ldulibic@hazu.hr), Christian Fuhrmeister (c.fuhrmeister@zikg.eu), Donata Levi (donata.levi@uniud.it), Barbara Murovec (BaMurovec@zrc-sazu.si)

http://heranet.info/projects/hera-2016-uses-of-the-past/
https://www.transcultaa.eu/
http://uifs.zrc-sazu.si/en/

For further information please contact: murovecuifs.sekretariat@zrc-sazu.si

Reference: CONF: Dispossessions of Cultural Objects (Ljubljana, 19-21 Mar 18). In: ArtHist.net, Mar 2, 2018. <https://arthist.net/archive/17500>.