The Documentation Centre for Property Transfers of the Cultural Assets of WWII Victims is organizing the 8th international conference on the expropriation of property during the Second World War, which takes place on 17–18 September 2024. The programme of the international event will focus on the issues of provenance research, the fate of looted books and libraries, the restitution of looted cultural property, as well as the possibilities of cooperation in the field of identification, documentation and restitution of cultural property looted to the victims of the Second World War.
The Institute of Art History, CAS and National Heritage Institute are organising a conference entitled Preserving Memory. Holocaust in Monuments and Memorials in the Czech Republic. The aim of the conference is a professional evaluation of the topic of Holocaust monuments and memorials in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The meeting intends to present both the historical and art-historical circumstances of the creation of these works, that are often neglected. At the same time the theoretical foundations, as well as the subsequent reception of Holocaust monuments and memorials will be discussed. Furthermore, the conference will not only follow the visual aspects, but also deal with changing minority identities and their influence on monument creation, and in a wider perspective on the individual, collective and cultural memory of the Holocaust and its projection into specific monuments and works of art.
In October 2023, the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles will open an exhibition entitled RECLAIMED: a Family Painting. The exhibition tells the story of three generations of the family of Czech entrepreneur and art collector Johann Bloch and documents their efforts to recover and reclaim property that was stolen from them during the Second World War
The Director of the Centre took part in the special plenary meeting of the ICOM National Committee Czech Republic held in the beautiful premises of the Museum of Czech Literature. In addition to the election of the new ICOM Board, the main topic was the cooperation between the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and ICOM Czech Republic in supporting the protection of cultural heritage in Ukraine. Considering the main activity of the Centre, whose employees come into daily contact with evidence of the deliberate destruction and alienation of the cultural property of the victims of the Second World War, we greatly appreciate this joint activity of the Czech institutions.
The Documentation Center Administrative Board unanimously appointed Jana Jirásková as the new director of the organisation at their June meeting. Jirásková, the long-time deputy director of the Center, replaced Helena Krejčová, who was in charge of the organisation until the end of 2022.
More, News, Others, Publications, Related materials
This brochure presents the typical markings, labels and tags that can be found on items originally belonging to Jewish owners from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia who were deported by the Nazis.
The website of the Documentation Center has been expanded with a Related Materials section, in which various interesting facts related to the topics of property seizures of victims of the Second World War, provenance research or the fates of the original owners of identified cultural assets will be published. There is also an interactive map of the storage depots of confiscated property, including photos and information about the objects that were kept in specific units. Currently, there are warehouses located in the territory of Prague 1 and other Prague districts will gradually be added.
To commemorate International Provenance Research Day, which falls on April 12 2023, The Documentation Centre has prepared an online version of Václav Erben´s study entitled Paintings from Jewish collections at the National Gallery in Prague – Richard Poppers´s Collection.
The Documentation Centre has published a new book from a series of publications dedicated to paintings from Jewish collections at the National Gallery in Prague. The study, dedicated to Richard Popper's collection (Paintings from Jewish collections at the National Gallery in Prague - Richard Poppers´s Collection - Documentation Centre for Property Transfers of the Cultural Assets of WW II Victims, p.b.o. (cdmp.cz)), is now followed by the treatise on artworks whose original owners remain unidentified. An extensive catalogue of works is based on detailed archival research and is accompanied by colour reproductions of the researched paintings – spanning from the Old Master paintings to the works of Modern Masters such as J. Schikaneder or A. Chittussi.
An intensive and stimulating cooperation of the Documentation Centre with colleagues from the Holocaust Claims Processing Office, New York spanned for nearly three years. It was only crowned on February 14, 2023, by a special event in the Palais Nostitz in Prague. The outcome of this inspirational cooperation is the restitution of 4 paintings and a small collection of 10 liturgical vestments and dalmatics to the heirs of Johann Bloch (*7.6.1869 – 13.12.1940), who was an industrialist and art collector from Brno. After 1939, these works were kept in the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts and the National Gallery in Prague. Only today, after more than eighty years, the artworks have returned back to the hands of J. Bloch's family, namely to his great-granddaughters, who attended the event in person.
