IFAR Journal

Discusses Ruben’s Rape of Lucretia, missing from Germany since World War II, and found in Russia. It is currently in the hands of the Federal Police, while ownership is settled

Edited transcript and Q&A from an IFAR Evening, June 24, 2003. Former Under Secretary of State Eizenstat discusses Holocaust restitution efforts, of which he was in charge during the Clinton Administration. He specifically addresses the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets and the principles set out during that conference. He offers a report on the progress toward fulfilling those restitution principles.

Discusses the difficulty of determining fakes and forgeries of Pieter Brueghel’s work, as copying and imitating earlier masters was common practice in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Recent reassessments of the artist’s drawn oeuvre have significantly reduced the number of works attributed to him.

In cases involving authenticity disputes, basic principles of law, Feldman suggests, do not offer satisfactory results, particularly in terms of the “burden of proof” rule.

Update on the recovery of art looted in Iraq. Some degree of success had been achieved through raids and the Amnesty Program. Among notable recoveries are The Warka Vase, The Warka Head, and Bassetki Statue Base of Naram-Sin.

Switzerland has introduced a new law, The Federal Act on the International Transfer of Cultural Goods, as a step towards ratifying the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property.

In an attempt to recover a saltcellar crafted by Benvenuto Cellini in the 16th century, authorities have created a website with a letter requesting its return and contact information. The story describes the theft during a nighttime break-in.

Madonna with Yarnwinder, attributed to Leonardo and stolen from Drumlanrig Castle, Scotland, in August of 2003, is still missing.

Review of the first of two volumes of the Gauguin Catalogue Raisonné by Daniel Wildenstein with Sylvie Crussard and Matine Heudron. Mathews discusses this ambitious revision of the original catalogue published by Georges Wildenstein in 1964 and suggests that it will make a significant contribution to Gauguin scholarship.

Thefts include: Man Ray, Swiftly Walk Over the Western Wave, 1940; Leonardo Da Vinci, attrib., Madonna with Yarnwinder, c. 1501-1508; Vincent Van Gogh, Landscape in the Neighborhood of Saint-Remy, 1889; Amedeo Modigliani, Tête de Face; William de Kooning, Study from de Kooning’s Woman Series, 1952. Recoveries include: Caspar David Friedrich, Nebelschwaden, c. 1818-1820 (stolen from exhibition in Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, July 1994, recovered in July 2000).