Training

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) is pleased to announce 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, our program is geared toward graduate students in any field and emerging museum professionals, with selected streamed sessions available to the broader public. We will offer 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 may register to attend selected sessions virtually. 

Our planning team includes 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. 
• Application Requirements and Timeline

  Application Requirements

  • Completed form [fillable pdf]
  • One letter of recommendation to be sent directly from the referee
  • Transcript(s) of higher education completed thus far, or an essay explaining equivalent experience

  Send materials in a single pdf to ahss.ace@du.edu, with “application” in the subject line.

  Application Timeline

  • Applications accepted on a rolling basis through 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time (UTC-6) on Sunday, March 19, 2023.
  • Notifications of acceptance in mid-April. Twenty certificate students will be accepted. 
  • Program dates: Arrival and campus apartment check-in on Sunday, June 18. All-day program Monday, June 19–Friday, June 23. Campus check-out June 24.

  Thanks to generous scholarship support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, we are able to offer the training program for an all-inclusive cost of $1,500. This fee includes:

  • Program tuition.
  • Week-long lodging in an upscale campus apartment with single bedrooms, shared kitchen and bathroom.
  • All meals on campus. Students pay for their own lunch the day of site visits at the Denver Art Museum and the Kirkland Museum.
  • Transportation within Denver during the program.
  • Opening reception and final banquet.
  • Students are responsible for transportation costs to and from the University of Denver.
• Qualifications for Certificate Program 
  • A bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience is required. Applicants are welcome to explain equivalent experience in the application essay.  
  • We welcome applications from graduate students and emerging professionals with various backgrounds, including art history, museum studies, anthropology, cultural studies, history, religious studies, and library and information science.  
  • We encourage participation from minoritized communities and staff at academic museums and galleries, who are poised to help train the rising generation of curators.  
• Non-Certificate Attendance

  Anyone may attend most sessions virtually as a non-certificate student for a modest daily fee. A session streamed at the Denver Art Museum the morning of Wednesday, June 21 will be available free of charge.

  The non-certificate registration deadline is Thursday, June 15, 2023 at 5 p.m. MDT.

  View Non-Certificate Schedule and Registration