Findings from the bindings: An overview of Nazi-Era spoliation research at the British Library

Antonia Bartoli

doi:10.25364/guv.2020.voebs15

Findings from the bindings: An overview of Nazi-Era spoliation research at the British Library

Authors

Antonia Bartoli Yale University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25364/guv.2020.voebs15.21

Synopsis

Since the signing of the Washington Conference Principles in 1998, the British Library has taken its duties seriously to identify collection items that might have been displaced between the years 1933 through 1945. The present paper will provide a brief overview of Spoliation Research projects at the library and a longer summary of its most recent investigations into the Henry Davis Collection of Bookbindings. Resources and methodologies employed for investigating questions pertaining to the Nazi era will be discussed, and the challenges and limitations faced when examining printed material, and how these challenges are confronted on a daily basis, underlined. In sharing case studies of items in the library collection that were identified as having been spoliated, the paper will furthermore highlight the ethical, moral and legal considerations that arise in seeking just and fair solutions for the return of cultural property dispossessed as a result of Nazi persecution.

Author Biography

Antonia Bartoli, Yale University

Antonia Bartoli is currently the Curator of Provenance Research at the Yale University Art Gallery where she researches the ownership history of the gallery’s encyclopaedic collections. A specialist in Nazi-era provenance research, she has also worked as Spoliation Curator for the British Library, London, as the Restitution Researcher for Christie’s Auction House, New York, and as a consultant for Art Recovery International, New York, London and Venice. She completed graduate work in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She also holds a Masters degree in the History of Art from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.