Christie’s Auction House announced 2023 is the 25th anniversary of the Washington Principles – an international agreement that opened a new era of transparency with respect to art lost or stolen during the Nazi period between 1933 and 1945. Throughout the year, Christie’s  Restitution Department will honor this landmark moment with Reflecting on Restitution, a global program of events…Christie’s Reflecting on Restitution program begins on 27 January, when visitors will be welcomed to an inaugural public exhibition at Christie’s galleries in Paris. Throughout the year, global audiences will be invited to engage with the program through other in-person opportunities as well as Christie’s dedicated website, featuring recordings of selected events, stories of important restitutions.

History

In December 1998, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum brought together participants from 44 countries and 13 non-governmental organizations, as well as observers from art museums and auction houses, to Washington, D.C., to address the widespread loss and confiscation of art during the Holocaust era. This group established and publicly shared 11 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, which offered a new way forward for victims and their heirs to research, locate, and, where possible, recover missing art and lost histories.

To read more and see the dates in Europe and USA for “Reflecting on Restitution” see:

https://www.christies.com/about-us/press-archive/details?PressReleaseID=10773

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee