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Art Collection Ethics

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Arts & Culture  •

ACE offers postgraduate, non-degree certificate programs, virtually and on campus. This page has summaries of our past trainings. 

See Current Program Information

 

Past Programs

Fundamental of Nazi-Era Art Provenance Research
  • June 18–23, 2023
Fundamentals of Nazi-Era Art Provenance Research
  • August 2–6, 2021
Ethical Stewardship of Native American Collections
  • June 21–26, 2020 [cancelled due to COVID-19]
Photograph of an old ledger in German. There are other handwritten documents that are yellowed with age in the background.

Fundamentals of Nazi-Era Art Provenance Research

Hybrid Training Program

June 18-23, 2023

The Center for Art Collection Ethics (ACE) at the University of Denver (DU) held a hybrid training program on the fundamentals of Nazi-era art provenance research, June 18–23, 2023. In partnership with DU’s Center for Professional Development, the program was geared toward graduate students in any field and emerging museum professionals, with selected streamed sessions available to the broader public. We offered an on-campus postgraduate certificate of completion to twenty students through an application process, with generous support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. In addition, non-certificate students and other attendees were able to attend selected sessions virtually. 

Our planning team included Renée Albiston, Associate Museum Director of Kirkland Museum Fine & Decorative Art, who also conducts Nazi-era provenance research at the Denver Art Museum; Elizabeth Campbell, Associate Professor of History at DU and Director of ACE; and MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.  

  • Program Summary

    The certificate program includes:  

    • Interactive lectures and discussions with top historians, provenance researchers and museum staff, with break-out sessions to allow smaller group discussions. 
    • Workshops on legal and ethical challenges in the stewardship and trade of Nazi-looted art.  
    • A case study of the Paul Rosenberg collection, presented by MaryKate Cleary, Lecturer of Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London.  
    • Site visit to the Denver Art Museum, where Renée Albiston will present case studies of pieces she researched, with recto and verso observation of paintings. 
    • Site visit to the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, for a tour of the collection and a discussion on the challenges of researching decorative art objects. 
    • Information on archival resources abroad and in the United States, including presentations by Sylvia Naylor from the National Archives and Records Administration, Megan Lewis at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Anna Bottinelli at the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, and experts at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. 
    • Discussion of available resources on databases, and the long-proposed but unfulfilled mission to create a single database with data on Nazi-plundered art, by Marc Masurovsky, co-founder of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project.
    • Workshops on writing provenance narratives, transparency, and making research public, facilitated by Renée Albiston and MacKenzie Mallon. 
    • For certificate students: small group work on provenance research case studies using digital resources, and presentation of findings during a symposium the final day of the program.  
    • The week concludes with a keynote address by David Zivie, Head of the Mission for the Research and Restitution of Spoliated Cultural Property between 1933 and 1945, in the French Ministry of Culture. 
Woman pulls out art stacks at University of Denver Art Collections

Fundamentals of Nazi-Era Art Provenance Research

Virtual Training Program

August 2–6, 2021

The Center for Art Collection Ethics (ACE) at the University of Denver (DU) held a fully virtual training program on the fundamentals of Nazi-era art provenance research, August 2–6, 2021. Our program was geared toward graduate students in any field and emerging museum professionals, with sessions available to the broader public. We offered a postgraduate certificate of completion to twenty students through an application process, with full scholarships provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. 

Our planning team included Renée Albiston, Associate Museum Director of Kirkland Museum Fine & Decorative Art, who also has conducted provenance research at the Denver Art Museum; Elizabeth Campbell, Associate Professor of History at DU and Director of ACE; Angelica Daneo, Chief Curator and Curator of European Art before 1900 at the Denver Art Museum; and MacKenzie Mallon, Specialist, Provenance, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. 

  • Program Summary
    The program included: 

    • Interactive lectures and discussions with top historians, provenance researchers and museum staff, with break-out groups to allow smaller group discussions. 

    • Virtual visits to the University of Denver and the Denver Art Museum collections, followed by live Q&A sessions with the curators and provenance researchers.  

    • Object case studies illustrating ownership evidence on the back of painting frames. 

    • Information on archival resources in the United States and abroad featuring Meike Hopp, Professor for Digital Provenance at the Technische Universität Berlin.

    • Presentations of digital resources including the ERR Jeu de Paume database and the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project, by Marc Masurovsky.

    • A roundtable on legal and ethical dimensions of Nazi-era art stewardship, including Nicholas O’Donnell, attorney at Sullivan and Worcester in Boston.

    • Perspectives from claimants themselves, including Simon Goodman, descendant of Fritz Gutmann and author of "The Orpheus Clock."

    • Interactive workshops on writing provenance narratives, essential information, and making findings public, featuring Jacques Schumacher, Provenance and Spoliation Curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

    • For certificate students: small group work on provenance research case studies using digital resources, and presentation of findings through a symposium the final day of the program. 

    • Keynote address by Jane Milosch, Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of Glasgow and former Founding Director of the Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative, and the PREP exchange program of German and American curators: “A Decade of International Provenance Research and Exchange at the Smithsonian (2009-2019): Looking Back, Looking Forward.” 

Detailed Schedule

indigenous art exhibit

Ethical Stewardship of Native American Collections

June 21–26, 2020 [cancelled due to COVID-19]

Working with partners in the historic tribes of Colorado—the Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho—we designed a truly Native-centered certificate program that featured talks by renowned experts, including Dakota Hoska [Oglala Lakhóta], Joseph [Woody] Aguilar [San Ildefonso Pueblo], and Cynthia Chavez Lamar [San Felipe Pueblo/Hopi/Tewa/Navajo]. We planned sessions with artists and practitioners at the Denver Art Museum and History Colorado, and in partnership with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, built an object study assignment, using Native items and the museum archive collection.

We greatly regret the cancellation of the program, due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, and are discussing possibilities for future programs. In the meantime, please enjoy our interview series with experts who would have shared their expertise in the certificate program.