Monthly Archive for March, 2011

From Felicia R. Lee at The New York Times…

A 370-year-old painting that belonged to a Jewish art dealer who fled the Netherlands around the time of the Nazi invasion in 1940 will be returned to his family by the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Associated Press reported.

The painting, “Landscape With Cottage and Figures,” done by Pieter Molijn around 1640, belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent dealer who died in a fall on a ship while fleeing the Nazis with his wife and son. His collection was looted, and some of the art ended up in the hands of the Nazi leader Hermann Goering, according to the Associated Press report.

In a written statement released Monday, museum officials stated: “Working in cooperation with representatives of the Goudstikker heirs, the Getty’s research revealed that the painting was in Goudstikker’s inventory at the time of the invasion in 1940, and that it was never restituted after World War II. Based on its findings, the Getty concluded that the painting should be transferred to the heirs.” More…

From the UNESCO Media Services…

Trafficking of cultural goods is among the main criminal activities in the world in financial terms together with the illicit trade in weapons and drugs, according to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). According to some sources it amounts to US$ 6 billion, but it is difficult to verify this figure, because of the illicit nature of this trade.

The plundering of archaeological sites, the illicit trafficking of religious objects, the unprecedented growth of the global art market, as well as crime linked to the circulation of cultural goods and to their sale for the financing of terrorist activities, are major concerns for the international community. Thus, several African countries have lost more than half their cultural heritage, which is today scattered in public and private collections outside the continent. Another example: since 1975, hundreds of Buddha statues from the temples of Cambodia have been forcibly removed, mutilated or decapitated. UNESCO estimates that this type of vandalism takes place at least once a day.

To meet these challenges, UNESCO adopted the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 40 years ago. Currently ratified by 120 States, it marked the first international recognition of the fact that cultural goods are not goods like any others. More…

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