Christie's Invitation to the round table moderated by Journalist Georgina Adam at Christie's Paris, 9 Avenue Matignon, Paris, 26 January 2023
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Washington Principles — an international agreement that opened a new era of transparency with respect to art lost or stolen during the Nazi period between 1933 and 1945, Christie’s honours this landmark moment with “Reflecting on Restitution”, beginning in Paris with an inaugural public exhibition by French contemporary artist Raphaël Denis, held at Christie’s galleries on Avenue Matignon. The exhibition will feature a series of installations that form an extremely precise fragmentary reconstitution of artworks lost to confiscation, looting, or forced sale by Jewish collectors in France. To mark the opening, Christie’s will host a panel discussion on the Washington Principles and on post-war restitution efforts, including presentations by leading experts David Zivie, Head of France’s Mission for Research and Restitution of Spoliated Cultural Property between 1933 and 1945, and art historian Emmanuelle Polack, together with Claire Gimpel Touchard, the descendant of René Gimpel, Didier Schulmann, emeritus curator, and the artist Raphaël Denis along with scholars, legal experts, researchers and interested parties in Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, London, New York as well as throughout the United States, and Tel Aviv, to share and discuss important stories, ideas and perspectives.
Christie's Paris, 9 Avenue Matignon, Paris, 26 January 2023
In December 1998, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum brought together participants from 44 countries and 13 non-governmental organizations, as well as observers from art museums and auction houses, to Washington, D.C., to address the widespread loss and confiscation of art during the Holocaust era. This group established and publicly shared 11 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, which offered a new way forward for victims and their heirs to research, locate, and, where possible, recover missing art and lost histories. The Washington Principles have ushered in a new wave of art restitution and they are the foundation of Christie’s approach to art and cultural valuables that were lost during the Nazi-era and to the work of its Restitution Department.
