Munich Gurlitt hoard update: The latest news from the German trenches-- 1/ the names of the members of the Gurlitt Task Force will remain secret---Geheimereichssache. How does a task force about provenance research turn into a State secret? 2/ The Claims Conference will not have a seat at the Task Force table. Surprise? Neither will the Art Loss Register... 3/ Rumor has it that non-German lawyers are smelling opportunities and recruiting their own researchers.... Do they know something we dont? Or are they positioning themselves like vulgar ambulance chasers? The Gurlitt affair is turning into another kind of Munich, the Munich of international weakness. Look at France! It is surrendering in an abject manner, pretending that this case does not concern it, that it is a German affair? Since when did the plunder of occupied France turn into an exclusively German affair? Perhaps we should ask the French authorities what they did with the works that they confiscated from Hildebrand Gurlitt. Once again, did they return them to rightful owners? did they sell them? did they incorporate them into their own collections? And where is the French Jewish community in all of this? Does it think that the Rosenberg claim for the Matisse is an internal German matter? Spinelessness all around. Actually, the track record of the organized French Jewish community is worse than paltry when it comes to restitution. For decades now, its leadership has forsaken those among them who seek the return of what is theirs and what was lost at the hands of collaborators and Nazis. Oh, yes, one forgets that it is taboo to discuss property crimes and the Holocaust in the same sentence. Best not to say too loud how essential, how fundamental, how organic, the personal, family, and communal bonds to culture can be, and how wrenching it is to be forced to surrender art objects against ones will because one is Jewish. Yes, we wont tell, not to worry. Your secret is safe... NOT. Oy vey. We continue to forge ahead along dirt paths, sinuous roads as there is never a straight line when one strives for a modicum of justice for the victims, their families, and for all those who earnestly believe that knowledge is POWER. May the chips fall where they may... Tomorrow is definitely another day.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 20:04:54 +0000
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