While panelists praised the U.S. for its program of art restitution following World War II, they said the inconsistency of laws and ethics in different countries still complicate the politics of restitution.
Fogg Museum Assistant Curator Sarah Kianovsky said she has experienced the difficulty of tracing the ownership history of paintings through her position as assistant curator at the Fogg.
According to Kianovsky, the Fogg holds over 14,000 paintings and about 8,000 of them may have been in Europe between 1943 and 1947.
“I don’t consider anything clean,” Kianovsky said. “New information can always come up that could change everything.”
She suggested that in order to deal with the difficulties of tracing ownership, museums must have the freedom to exchange information with researchers and heirs, a willingness to accept inconclusive results—and patience.