In the spring of 1939, Jewish people living throughout lands under Nazi government were forced to bring all their households’ precious metal and jewelry to sixty-six designated pawnshops. The pawnbrokers sold the silver to silversmiths, dealers, refineries, individuals, and, not least, to museums. Many museums restituted part of these sinister accessions in the 1950s and 1960s, but some of the silver remains part of institutional collections.
This talk by Matthias Weniger, Curator of Painting and Sculpture pre-1500 and Head of Provenance Research at the Bavarian National Museum, describes his current work to seek the heirs of that silver and return the objects to the families from whom they were taken. This work is distinct from much contemporary restitution practice: it involves direct contact with descendent communities and reckons with the history of the objects, which were made for the daily and often religious use of persecuted ancestors. In many cases, the objects, many of them candlesticks and kiddush cups, are all that remains from the people and communities murdered during the shoa, or the Holocaust.
Related New York Times article
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged for space planning purposes: click this link to register for the lecture.Â
This lecture is cosponsored by the Department of Art & Archaeology and the Princeton University Art Museum.
