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Justice Matters - Restituting Holocaust- Era Art and Artifacts
She quoted John Coffey, the curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, speaking at a ceremony when the painting
''Madonna and Child in a Landscape,'' by Lucas Cranach the Elder, was formally reinstated in the museum. This was made
possible by a generous arrangement with the heirs of the pre-war owner, an Austrian industrialist, Philipp von Gomperz, who had
fled the Nazis.
Coffey referred to the Cranach this way: "Religious icon, aesthetic object, war loot, propaganda, commodity, memento, the
elusive object of a quest, and a symbol of hope and reconciliation: this small, exquisite painting has been all of these things. Its
various and contradictory meanings are the product of an extraordinary history. And that history, so full of meanings and itself so
meaningful, is what we intend to share with any and all who are drawn into the wonder of this picture.” Henry suggested this is true
of all Nazi-era looted art.
http://www.imj.org.il/Justice_Matters_Conference/Marilyn_Henry.index.html (2 of 2) [08/09/2008 10:51:10]