FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Millicent Hall Gaudieri
212-249-4423
aamd@amn.orgPRESS STATEMENT
(New York, NY, February 9, 1999) -- At its Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, California, January 27 - 30, the Association of Art Museum Directors, representing 165 of the largest American art museums, voted to officially reaffirm the guidelines for dealing with Holocaust-era art adopted by the Association six months ago. The guidelines, drafted by a special AAMD Task Force, were the basis for eleven principles regarding Holocaust-era stolen art adopted by an international conference convened by the State Department in Washington, D.C., in early December.
A survey at the San Diego meeting indicated that almost all member museums with collections that include the kind of art that was stolen by the Nazi government are following AAMD guidelines by conducting active research on the origins of their collections. Of the few museums that have completed research on their collections since the guidelines were adopted six months ago, none has turned up any problematic works of art. The survey also showed that nearly half of AAMD member museums have collections that would not be problematic, for example, collections that are exclusively American art or contemporary art.
AAMD President Vishakha Desai said, "Association members are approaching the task of surveying their collections seriously. We have deep compassion for Holocaust victims and a desire to resolve this issue as expeditiously as possible, but we also understand that the kind of careful research required is time consuming."
Art museum directors strongly supported the establishment of a central database that would assist them in checking the history of ownership of museum collections. Such a database would need to include as complete a list as possible of Holocaust-era stolen art and collections that are known to have been looted, as well as a listing of stolen art that was returned shortly after the end of World War II.
