Over last 15 years, U. Art Museum has redoubled efforts to determine origins of WWII-era art
Christina VosbikianArt museums across the country, including the University Art Museum, have intensified their efforts over the past decade and a half to determine the provenance, or origin, of art from the World War II era. Guidelines issued in 1998 by the Association of Art Museum Directors and in 1999 by the American Alliance of Museums ask museums in part to attempt to resolve whether there might be potential claimants to art they are considering purchasing or which they have in their collections if there is the possibility that work of art may have been unlawfully appropriated by the Nazi government in Germany from 1933-45. Museums should also disclose the chain of custody for a work of art if it passed through Nazi hands even if it cannot identify potential claimants, the guidelines add. “The ethics in the field really require you to know the provenance of the objects in your collection,"Ford Bell, president of the American Alliance of Museums, said."If there is a claim against [an object’s provenance], you have to take it seriously.
