New approaches to Art and visual culture
CHArt Nineteenth Annual Conference
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CONVERGENT PRACTICES New approaches to Art and visual culture |
Shauna Isaac, London, UK
Using the Internet to Find Looted Art: Success or Failure?
During World War II, the Nazi party systematically looted over one quarter of the art in Europe and there are still over 100, 000 looted objects that remain missing. Thanks to advances in technology, the Internet may now be used to reunite the missing objects with their rightful owners or their heirs. A range of online databases from various countries will be discussed, including those in Germany, the Czech Republic, the UK and the USA, and their degree of effectiveness analysed. The challenges and controversies of creating an international repository for looted art will also be discussed, including the difficulties in collating information, and standardization. There are many organizations that believe that the research being done is too passive and that information posted online could lead to owners of looted art hiding such possessions. These issues will also be addressed.
As the content director at the Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945, my goal was to create an international repository for cultural property that had been looted during the Nazi era. The resulting database is now available online at www.lootedart.com