Legal Resources on the Spoils of War/International Protection of Cultural Property

Books

• Handbook of National Regulations Concerning the Export of Cultural Property (Paris: Unesco, 1988).
• Law, Ethics and The Visual Arts 46-139 (1988).
• The Protection of Movable Cultural Property: Compendium of Legislative Texts (Paris: Unesco, 1984- ). xxK3791.A48130 1984 Law, Gen.
• Protection of Cultural Property: Handbook of National Legislations (1974).
• L. Prott & P.J. O'Keefe, 1 Law and the Cultural Heritage: Discovery and Excavation (1984).
• The Spoils of War : World War II and Its Aftermath : The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property (Elizabeth Simpson ed., New York : Harry N. Abrams in association with the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 1997)(ISBN: 0810944693). 336p.

       Papers of a symposium sponsored by the Bard Graduate Center for 
       the Decorative Arts, Jan. 1995, in New York.  Includes texts or 
       excerpts of related treaties, conventions, and other official 
       documents in the appendices.
  

Articles

• Alexander Blankenagel, "Eyes Wide Shut: Displaced Cultural Objects in Russian Law and Adjudication", 8 East European Constitutional Review, No. 4, Fall 1999, at 75-80.
• Stephan Wilske, "International Law and the Spoils of War: To the Victor the Right of Spoils?: The Claims for Repatriation of Art Removed from Germany by the Soviet Army During or as a Result of World War II", 3 UCLA Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs 223 (Summer 1998)(on WESTLAW as 3 UCLAJILFA 223)

Catalogs

• Looted Art - First Internet Research Catalog (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany) = Verlustkatalog - Suche nach verschollenen Kunstwerken (ein Projekt der Bremer Koordinierungsstelle und des Kulturministerium Sachsen-Anhalts)

       "War Booty Web Site Goes Online", The Week in Germany, 
       December 20, 1996, at 7:  "listing of a thousand artworks, 
       rare books, manuscripts and other cultural properties that 
       disappeared in the wake of World War II...also includes more
       than 10, 000 documents pertaining to the fate of German
       cultural properties during the immediate post-war period...
       [including] Russian lists of transports of objects from 
       Germany to the Soviet Union and the reports of U.S. military 
       officials on the depositories where cultural goods had been 
       sent for safekeeping...will eventually be expanded to include
       objects that Germany's 15 other federal states lost at the end 
       of the war.  At the end of the coming year, Magdeburg, 
       Saxony-Anhalt's capital, is scheduled to become the home of 
       the states' Coordinating Office for the Return of Cultural 
       Properties.  Established in 1994, the office is currently
       located in Bremen."
  

• The Lost Art Internet Database (includes searchable listings in German, English, and eventually Russian; Michael Franz, Director; Regine Dehnel, Art Historian)
• The Art Loss Register (ALR; private database of stolen art)

Other Resources

• Russian Constitutional Court: Constitutionality of the Russian Federation Law on "Cultural Objects Removed to the U.S.S.R. as a Result of World War II and Located in the Territory of the Russian Federation", No. 12-P (July 20, 1999; summary provided from ASIL's International Law in Brief)
• INTCULTPROP (American Bar Association Task Force on Cultural Property list; includes news of the International Cultural Property Committee of the International Law and Practice Section of the ABA (was the Cultural Property Subcommittee of the International Intellectual Property Rights Committee of the ABA); discussions cover looted art, the spoils of war, indigenous peoples property, and international protection of cultural property generally; to subscribe, send e-mail to listserv@abanet.org with ony the following text in the body of the message:
  

       subscribe intcultprop Your Name
  

• SECURMA (Museum Security MailingList; moderated list of the Museum Security Network (MSN) for exchange of information about all security and safety aspects related to the protection of cultural property; reports of incidents and trade involving stolen cultural property; looted art; European page for the SECURMA list is at http://www.xs4all.nl/~securma/; archived at http://museum-security.org/archive.html; page includes information on Art Crimes, World War II and the looted art question, and the Balkans conflict and cultural property, and has links to many useful related web pages; to subscribe, send e-mail to subscribe@museum-security.org or to the SECURMA subscription page)
• International Cultural Property Protection (links to worldwide efforts to protect intellectual property via the United States State Department web site; was via the United States Information Agency (USIA) web page at http://www.usia.gov/education/culprop/ until January 2000)
• Cultural Property Program (U.S. Department of Justice, INTERPOL-U.S. National Central Bureau Web Site database containing a partial listing of stolen cultural property - thefts of art, etc. reported to police worldwide)
• UNIDROIT NEWS (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) - independent intergovernmental organization based in Rome, Italy - quarterly electronic newsletter providing information on current UNIDROIT activities; also available via e-mail and as part of the Uniform Law Review; covers international harmonization of law including commercial contracts and protection of cultural property; the UNIDROIT web site has the full text of the Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (Rome, 24 June 1995))
• International Council of Museums (ICOM)
• Museumsrecht, Kulturgutschutz, Denkmalschutz (part of the Virtual Library Museen - Deutschland; German-language page on Museums Law and the Protection of Cultural Property and Cultural Heritage; includes links to related pages)
• Repatriation and Reburial Issues (indigenous peoples and protection of cultural property; Native Americans)
• NAGPRA-L (list for discussion of issues surrounding the U.S. Native American Graves Preservation and Restoration Act and its implementation; American Indian law; restitution; protection of cultural property; to subscribe, send e-mail to listserv@world.std.com with only the following text in the body of the message:
  

       subscribe nagpra-l Your Name
  

• International Journal of Cultural Property (Oxford University Press and Walter De Gruyter journal covering cultural property policy, ethics, preservation, economics, and law; art, architecture, ritual objects, music, literature, etc.; indigenous peoples; archeology; anthropology; tables of contents service available electronically - to subscribe, send e-mail to listserv@oup.co.uk with only the following text in the body of the message:
  

       subscribe intjcp-l
  

• Spoils of War: International Newsletter (Koordinierungsstelle der Länder für die Rückführung von Kulturgütern beim Kultusministerium des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt = Coordination Office of the Federal States for the Return of Cultural Property, Magdeburg, Germany; most recent issue is No. 6, February 1999 - copies available from Mr. N. Vanhove, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Brussels, Belgium; web site has full texts of Nos. 0-4)
• The "Looting Question" Bibliography: Web and Literary Resources on the Archaeological Politics of Private Collecting, Commercial Treasure Hunting, Looting, and "Professional" Archaeology (compiled by Hugh Jarvis, a doctoral candidate in Anthropology and a graduate student in Information and Library Studies at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo; focus on North American resources).
• Institute of Art and Law (IAL; was at http://www.pipemedia.net/ial/)
• Ownership of Stolen Nazi Art (CourtTV)

This page is maintained by Lyonette Louis-Jacques at llou@midway.uchicago.edu. Please direct comments and suggestions related to legal resources on the spoils of war to that address. Page created on 2 August 1997. Updated on 8 May 2000.