Just, fair – up to date?

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Washington Principles, the German Lost Art Foundation cordially invites you to a festive event in the Humboldt Hall of Berlin State Library, Haus Unter den Linden, at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, 7 December. The event entitled Gerecht, fair – aktuell?

25 Jahre Washingtoner Prinzipien (“Just, fair – up to date? 25 Years of the Washington Principles”) seeks to recognise the “Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art”, in which more than 40 states and 13 non-governmental organisations committed to identifying Nazi-confiscated works of art and arriving at just and fair solutions with the original owners or their descendants.

The Washington Principles have made a pivotal contribution to the development of provenance research in Germany, which has been funded by the German Lost Art Foundation since 2015: today, critical reappraisal of the Nazi confiscation of cultural property makes an essential contribution to at least partially making up for the losses suffered by the Jewish population and keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust as a crime against humanity. Nonetheless, it is also important to re-assess the 1998 principles in terms of their relevance to the current situation. Do they have the same relevance today as they once did? Is “soft law” of this kind still sufficient? What demands are there for “just and fair” solutions today and how can we meet them?

Afterwards, the Foundation will be hosting a reception in the Fontane Hall of the State Library.

The evening will be recorded and subsequently published as a video on the Foundation’s YouTube channel and its website kulturgutverluste.de.

For reasons of room capacity, we ask you to submit your binding registration by 22 November by e-mailing conference@kulturgutverluste.de or calling +49 (0) 391 727 763-23. Admission is free of charge.

Please note that the event is fully booked. We would be happy to put you on our waiting list and inform you as soon as a place becomes available.

Programme:

Welcome
Achim Bonte
Director General Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation

Opening speech
Claudia Roth
Minister of State for Culture and the Media

Opening speech
Wesley Fisher
Director of Research, Claims Conference and World Jewish Restitution Organization

Introduction
Gilbert Lupfer
Executive Chairman of the German Lost Art Foundation

Literary keynote
Rafael Cardoso
Descendant of Hugo Simon, whose collection is being reconstructed through a project funded by the Foundation

Panel discussion
Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen
Director of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation, former Minister of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, former Secretary General of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States

Léontine Meijer-van Mensch
Director of the State Ethnographic Collections (SES), Dresden State Art Collections

Stefan Koldehoff
Author and journalist, head reporter on cultural affairs, Deutschlandradio

Rüdiger Mahlo
Assistant Executive Vice President and Representative of the Claims Conference in Germany

Gilbert Lupfer
Executive Chairman of the German Lost Art Foundation

Moderator for the evening: Shelly Kupferberg

Standing reception

In cooperation with Berlin State Library: