Nazi-looted Art and Its Legacies

This issue examines the legacy of Nazi-looted art in light of the 2012 discovery of the famous Hildebrand Gurlitt collection of stolen artwork in Germany. When the German government declassified the case almost two years later, the resulting scandal raised fundamental questions about the role of art dealers in the Third Reich, the mechanics of the Nazi black market for artwork, the shortcomings of postwar denazification, the failure of courts and governments to adjudicate stolen artwork claims, and the unwillingness of museums to determine the provenance of thousands of looted pieces of art. The contributors explore the continuities of art dealerships and auction houses from the Nazi period to the Federal Republic and take stock of the present political and cultural debate over the handling of this artwork.

Special topic contributors. Konstantin Akinsha, Meike Hoffmann, Andreas Huyssen, Lawrence M. Kaye, Olaf Peters, Jonathan Petropoulos, Anson Rabinbach, Avinoam Shalem, Julia Voss, Amy Walsh

Andreas Huyssen is Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and the author of Miniature Metropolis: Literature in an Age of Photography and Film.

Anson Rabinbach is Professor of History at Princeton University and coeditor of Nazi Germany and the Humanities: How German Academics Embraced Nazism.

Avinoam Shalem is Riggio Professor of the History of the Arts of Islam at Columbia University and coeditor of The Salerno Ivories: Objects, Histories, Contexts.