From the Field

Nazi-Era Provenance Workshop on May 18, 2014, Seattle, WA

This workshop will be held in conjunction with the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries and will be held as part of AAMG’s annual conference in Seattle on May 18, 2014. The workshop will review best practices for conducting provenance research in art museums, with a focus on Nazi-era provenance as well as some issues pertaining to antiquities and cultural property. The session is geared to all levels of experience and can serve as a how-to and a refresher. The workshop leaders will discuss due diligence and the acquisition process, online research tools, and the handling of restitution claims. The workshop is limited to 50 participants; ample time will be allotted for Q and A.

Victoria Reed, Curator for Provenance, Fine Arts Museum, Boston and Nancy Yeide, Head, Department of Curatorial Records, National Gallery of Art will conduct the half day workshop, which will be held at the Hotel Deca in Seattle. Each participant will receive a copy of Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: the Hermann Goering Collection by Nancy Yeide, which is the first biography to focus on Goering’s personal collection and providing the first opportunity since the war to look at the collection as a whole and evaluate its place within art collecting and politics. This carefully documented volume is critical to the clarification of provenances of the objects featured and brings to light pictures whose histories and whereabouts have been hidden for decades.

Registration for this workshop is available here (Scroll down to “Sunday Morning Workshops”)

Nazi-Era Provenance Workshop on June 17, 2014, Washington, DC

**NOTE: The June 17 workshop is now at capacity. If you are still interested we encourage you to apply as we do have a wait list in the event space becomes available. Alternatively we encourage you to apply to the May 18 seminar in Seattle. 

This workshop will be held in Washington DC, at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Archives of American Art (AAA), Smithsonian Institution, from approximately 8:30 – 5:30. The workshop is designed for advanced researchers, with prerequisite experience, who currently have a museum affiliation and is limited to 30 participants to ensure a useful hands-on experience.

The workshop is cosponsored by the Association of Art Museum Directors; the National Archives and Records Administration; the Smithsonian Institution and the American Alliance of Museums.

Workshop leaders for the NARA-portion of the program are Nancy Yeide, Head, Department of Curatorial Records, National Gallery of Art and Chris Naylor, Director, Textual Records, NARA; and for the AAA-portion of the program Marisa Bourgoin, Chief of Reference Services, AAA and Laurie Stein, Senior Provenance Advisor, SI.

Each participant will be provided a copy of Holocaust-Era Assets: A Finding Aid to Records at the National Archive at College Park, by Greg Bradsher. The workshop will include extensive use of National Archives documents available on Fold3.com; therefore each participant must bring a wifi-capable laptop or tablet in order to participate.

To apply for registration, please complete this form and email it to aamdnycoffice@gmail.com.

The information on this form will help the workshop leaders determine participants who have the prerequisite experience. Applications for registration will be reviewed on a first-come-first-served basis. Applicants will be notified of whether their application has been accepted within 10 business days of submission.  A schedule is available on the registration form; further details are forthcoming.

Registration fee: $65.00 to be paid by check or Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover after notification of registration. 

There will be a $500 stipend to defray expenses offered to the first fifteen qualified applicants.   To qualify for the stipend participants must be from a U.S. museum, which is not located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

The Association of Art Museum Directors; the National Archives and Records Administration; the Smithsonian Institution and the American Alliance of Museums gratefully acknowledge the generous support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for stipends.