This symposium brings different standpoints and voices into dialogue to address two interlocking themes.
The first axis for conversation and debate is the concurrence between efforts to repair the damage performed by Nazi looting and attempts to do the same for the consequences of colonial plunder. The second axis for exchange is provided by the different contexts in which issues concerning repair and restitution are being addressed: specifically, the academic and the museological contexts.
This symposium aims to initiate dialogue between these different fields of enquiry. How can a comparison of the issues of repair and restitution post-Holocaust and post-Colonialism inform the work of both academics and museum professionals working in this challenging field today?
Speakers: Bruno Brulon Soares (University of St Andrews), John Giblin (National Museums Scotland), Constantin Goschler (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), Frezer Getachew Haile (Panterra), Alexander Herman (Institute of Art and Law), JC Niala (History of Science Museum, University of Oxford), Olivette Otele (SOAS), Michael Rothberg (University of California, Los Angeles), Jacques Schuhmacher (Art Institute of Chicago), Carsten Stahn (Universiteit Leiden and Queen’s University Belfast), Anne Webber CBE (Commission for Looted Art in Europe).
Please find concept note and full programme available for download here.
This event was preceded by a public lecture delivered by Professor Michael Rothberg (University of California, Los Angeles), titled ‘Restitution, repair and the memory wars’, held in partnership with the V&A Research Institute.
Co-convenors: David Feldman (Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London); Joanna Norman (V&A Research Institute, National Art Library and Archives); Jacques Schuhmacher (Art Institute of Chicago); Sarah Thomas (Centre for Museum Cultures, Birkbeck, University of London).