In the world of film, questions of provenance are having a moment in both documentaries and fiction. In the 2015 film, “Woman in Gold,” Helen Mirren plays an octogenarian who finds proof that a famous painting by Gustav Klimt was the one that hung above her aunt and uncle’s fireplace when she was a child. The painting, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer”—her aunt’s name—had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
If you follow the art world, you know this story is not unusual. The growth of internet research and increased interest in proper due diligence—particularly for Nazi-looted art and other spoils of war and archeological exploration (remember Indiana Jones?) —has made it easier to trace the provenance of artworks and antiquities.
No one knows this better than Eden Burgess, a partner at Washington D.C.-based law, policy, and strategic advising firm Cultural Heritage Partners. The firm specializes in art and antiquities law, historic preservation law, Native American issues, and governmental affairs. The firm was started in 2010 to fill a market gap in this space of increasing attention and complexity.
Eden tells a story of a client whose claim bore a striking similarity to that of Mirren’s character in “Woman in Gold.”
That client’s name was Eric Weinmann. One day, when Mr. Weinmann’s friend was visiting the Yale University Art Gallery, he spotted a painting that had belonged to Mr. Weinmann’s mother. The painting, “Le Grand Pont” by Gustave Courbet, had been taken from the family during World War II. It ended up in the hands of Herbert Schaefer, a German lawyer who had been a Nazi “brown shirt.” Many years later, Schaefer loaned it, along with much of the rest of his art collection, to Yale.
Read the entire article at Berkeley One.