The best part of the Declaration of Independence is spelled out towards the end where the conditions are set forth for justifying overthrowing an abusive ruler. Wondering how many people have actually read this part. It is inspirational and, dare we say, timeless.😎

You don't have to wait for historians to come up with a complex definition of what a "collaborator" is and looks like. This latest effort based on a careful examination of what made possible the Argentine dictatorship in the 1970s provides a compelling answer: Mediocrity! www.zu.de/newsroom/ter...

Recent "blockbuster auctions" at Christie's and Sotheby's confirm that we definitely live in a highly classist society. Extraordinary to think that works of once marginalized artists are now adornments for the elites. Simultaneously funny and disgusting. TGIF!!! www.artforum.com/news/christi...

As in the past nine years, the ARCA and HARP partnership is offering a special Conference+Provenance Research Course bundle from 19-26 June 2026 in Amelia (Umbria). The course lasts a week and is highly interactive. Write to [email protected] www.artcrimeresearch.org/provenance-a...

Congrats to Katalin Karikó! That kind of persistence in the face of institutional denigration and marginalization is admirable. mRNA research saved countless lives. Unfortunately, Karikó's story happens all the time, like a bad habit that humans can't kick--petty jealousy in the face of genius.

Best of luck! Arduous and painstaking exercise.

For the sake of argument, why treat "degenerate" works that you are about to incinerate with all the respect due to works which you display for anyone to admire for possible sale--maybe? Paradox of Nazi destruction? And why photograph them and print their image on expensive photographic paper?

Filmmaker Lars von Trier's Nazi moment. Was it provocation? was he sincere? Or simply plain naively tone-deaf? Either way it was deeply disturbing. Maybe one should skip his films. If anything, he is an idiot despite his brilliance behind the camera. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWFY...

Quick update: the Goudstikker painting was recovered. Congratulations to all who participated in this difficult process.

@artdetective.bsky.social Arthur Brand helps bring a looted Goudstikker painting to the light of day in a Dutch Nazi officer's family home no less. And an unrepentant family at that. Only significant external pressure can ensure restitution. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

France now has a law that facilitates the return of all "art" stolen during the "colonial era" and stored in French museums. Too bad the French government could not extend that privilege to Nazi looted art in same institutions. Another 100 years might convince them? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/a...

"The Carnegie International looks back at itself." In the 1930s, under the leadership of Homer Saint-Gaudens, the Carnegie made a deal with the devil by purging anti-Nazi Expressionists from its annual show to appease Goebbels while exhibiting Nazi-approved talent. hyperallergic.com/the-carnegie...

8 May 1945--V-E Day. Victory over Nazi Germany. Whoopee! Meanwhile, war with Japan continued relentlessly. The Cold War's first battlefield (Greece) was in full bloom, Nazi/Fascist war criminals escaped while their victims roamed Europe shell-shocked, traumatized. www.live5news.com/video/2026/0...

Oray Museum displays "unclaimed works" that once belonged to a Jewish collector murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Only problem: there is a claimant. Also, 1941 is too early for anyone to be deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. Facts, please. www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

excellent taste.

During WWII, Matisse worked in Nice at the Hotel Regina where he had set up his studio. In 1942 Matisse lent his voice to the wartime collaborationist government in Vichy via radio interviews that he consented to give. Meanwhile, his paintings were being confiscated from Jewish collections in Paris.

Flanders, the wealthiest region of Belgium, establishes a permanent restitution commission for the return of Nazi looted art. It's been long in coming, but it's never too late to do the right thing. Belgium played its role in the Nazi looted art market. www.belganewsagency.eu/flanders-est...

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art is looking for an Associate Director of Provenance Research and Object Histories. A curatorial-level post. trustcareers.si.edu/en/postings/...

The rush to mediocrity. Killing off art schools will not destroy or minimize our love of and commitment to art, the creative process, and artistic production. hyperallergic.com/the-death-of...

The art restitution discussion needs to be reframed within the context of cultural and human rights, conflict resolution and transitional justice. In that regard, aggrieved parties should determine how their displaced objects ought to be treated in public and private collections.

Economic warfare can be a constructive force for change in the international arena. Trade agreements were used against countries trading with the Axis. Cambodia was recently "punished" for violating human rights. It all depends on who wields the stick. theconversation.com/cambodia-pun...

Afrika Korps, Nazi Germany (1941-1943) Africa Corps, Russian Ministry of Defense, operating mostly in Mali (since 2023). Funny (or not) how history repeats itself. www.france24.com/fr/afrique/2...

Granted. Your request applies to all countries affected directly or indirectly by the Nazi years. Their withholding of archival documents to protect past misdeeds must stop so the full story can be told. Invoking sources and methods is as stale an excuse as the "good faith" defense.

Controversy over the proposed transfer of the NK collection of unclaimed cultural objects looted from Jews in the Netherlands during WWII, to a foundation overseeing their care and curate their management. Some want the objects sold to benefit the Jewish community. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/a...

This summer, the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) is proud to offer a bundle-annual conference+week-long workshop on provenance research. The conference is slated for 19-21 June 2026 and the workshop starts the following week. www.artcrimeresearch.org/provenance-a...

An annual international cultural heritage and provenance research conference is scheduled at Amelia (Italy) on 19-21 June 2026, under the auspices of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA). www.artcrimeresearch.org/annual-inter...

Things have not changed in Madrid since the Civil War of 1936-1939. What is so complicated about transferring a painting like "Guernica" to the place of historical martyrdom that it symbolizes? Franco and his followers never forgave the Basques and the Republicans. www.beauxarts.com/grand-format...

The Holocaust Museum in DC has been outed as engaging in self-censorship and historical revisionism in order to assuage the gods of war. A significant chunk of the museum's budget comes from the federal government. History ranks second to politics of exclusion. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Cambodia announced that a private collector in Asia has returned 20 stone and bronze cultural artefacts to the country. "We are profoundly grateful for the return of these souls to their homeland," commented the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.

The Capital Jewish Museum of Washington, DC, offers an exhibit on one of the darkest chapters in American history: the McCarthy era and the imposition of a "Blacklist" on American citizens whose views collided with those of Joseph McCarthy and his ilk. capitaljewishmuseum.org/exhibition/b...

Here is the record of this painting by Boldini documenting its theft by the Nazis. www.errproject.org/jeudepaume/c...

Christie's Paris is offering paintings and works on paper from the Veil-Picard collection. Veil-Picard lost many items during WWII at the hands of the Nazis. Some of these restituted works are offered at this sale like this painting by Boldini. www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6...

An exhibit in Berlin about the soldiers who gave their lives to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe between 1941-1945. Many of them came from the "colonies." There are countless stories of these soldiers marching through France, Germany and Austria to the amazament of locals. www.hkw.de/en/programme...

A painting by Hendrick Avercamp owned by Adolphe Schloss, stolen by Nazis in 1943, gone awol since 1945 in Munich, was recently spotted at a Parisian art fair by a looted art specialist. The painting was seized by law enforcement and returned to the heirs in 2026. www.errproject.org/jeudepaume/c...

With the new guidelines issued by IMLS for new applicants seeking funds for cultural projects, it does not look like provenance research will be highlighted...or maybe it might as long as it highlights the greatness of the American past. news.artnet.com/art-world/im...

someone at the Metropolitan Museum. You would have to ask them.

A Franz Marc painting at the Folkwang Museum is the subject of a bitter and continuing restitution fight between the heirs of , Hugo Simon and the museum over its ownership. Where was the painting in 1940? Simon never sold it and did not take it with him to safety. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/a...

possibly because someone finally went into the archives.

I guess they used the same source and didn't bother to dig further. A good indication of where the research ends.

:) would you by any chance know which source the author got the misspelled name from? Was it the 2005 cat raisonnée or a museum publication? (Or something else). Trying to track down the precise moment when the fake name was inserted into the history and by whom.

I do recall the article from 2013. I examined shipment lists of art from French dealers to German clients. I picked one with 3 Impressionists. Braunthed is Braunthal, which I did not know at the time. I figured it out through French government sources on postwar claims. The rest is...history...

How to kill a newspaper that brought us the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Abscam, Iran-Contra, Bill's sex and lies (no videos), etc. etc. without which we were all the poorer. This freedom does annoy people who have the means to silence...out of sight, out of mind. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

Thanks for the reminder. At least someone is checking..

The art world responds to recent events in the US. www.artforum.com/news/us-gall...

The US House of Representatives is sticking its big toe out hoping it won't get chopped off by proposing to fund the arts in despite current efforts to defund them. Let's sit back and watch. Even in the darkest times (McCarthyism namely), the Feds funded the arts. hyperallergic.com/house-votes-...

The US just pulled out of two cultural heritage organizations because they "are contrary to the interests of the United States" and are a waste of money. What is the current administration's policy on cultural heritage preservation and protection worldwide? None? hyperallergic.com/trump-withdr...

A major heist involving objects tied to the East India Company at a museum in Bristol. An anti-colonial act? anything is possible. Do the thieves think that objects tied to Britain's colonial past are "high-value" on the international market? www.bbc.com/news/article...

"Manifest Destiny" is making a comeback. hyperallergic.com/homeland-sec...

When politicians, lawmakers, eminent citizens equate modern art and non-representational esthetics with "Bolshevism", "communism" and "cultural degeneration", they emulate Adolf Hitler in his Mein Kampf. In plain English, it's Nazi thinking.

Relevant article in Artforum about government attempts at suppressing free artistic expression. Lessons can be drawn from the past to inform our present and protect us moving forward. www.artforum.com/features/the...