The Christie’s Grant for Nazi-era Provenance Research
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Event date 1 April - 31 May -
Event location Worldwide
In addition to the year-long global programme marking the 25th anniversary of the Washington Principles, Christie’s is delighted to announce the 2023 Christie’s Grant for Nazi-Era Provenance Research. The Grant, to be offered to three recipients (£5,000 each), will fund forward-thinking academic, post-graduate research into subjects related to Nazi-era provenance research. Furthermore, the Grant beneficiaries will be offered professional mentorship by a member of Christie’s international Restitution team. Applications will be accepted from 1 April – 31 May , and Grant recipients will be announced on 3 December 2023, to coincide with the Washington Conference anniversary.
These Grants are made possible with the support of the Christie's Fund (see Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) with the aim of increasing and supporting voices under-represented in provenance research, and to support early career development, particularly encouraging those for whom financial support will be significant in ensuring the opportunity to pursue specialized research.
The application process
Follow the steps below to submit your application
The application process will be open to submissions from 1 April to 31 May 2023, via email to Restitution2023@christies.com.
Early applications are encouraged, and can be from students in art history or with an interdisciplinary interest in Nazi-era related provenance research. Applications should include the following:
- An outline of current or proposed research topic (1,000 – 2,000 words), including date of thesis submission
- Confirmation of enrolment at an academic institution on a post-graduate course (masters or Ph.D studies) for the year 2023/24
- Two academic referees
- An outline on how financial support – up to £5,000 – would be helpful in ensuring completion of studies. Please note that grants should be spent within 18 months of receipt. Grants may cover institutional/tuition fees, research-related costs or to assist open access publication
- Curriculum vitae
- Any additional information supporting alignment with the Christie’s Fund goals.
Meet the expert panel
Christie’s will be supported by a panel of experts in selecting the Grant recipients, and are delighted to be working with:
Anne Webber, Commission for Looted Art in Europe
Anne Webber is co-founder and Co-Chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE). Established in 1999, CLAE is a non-profit, expert, representative body which negotiates restitution laws and policies with governments and cultural institutions, conducts research and trains provenance researchers, and acts for families worldwide to identify, locate and recover their Nazi-looted cultural property. She is also founder and Director of the Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945 at www.lootedart.com, set up in 2001 to fulfil Washington Principle VI and which is an international centre of expertise and provides an online repository of the latest research, news and information from 49 countries and a database of 25,000 objects.
Marc Masurovsky, Holocaust Art Restitution Project
Marc Masurovsky co-founded the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) in September 1997 and served as its Director of Research. Active from 1980 in examining assets looted during the Nazi era, he has been an expert historian in Swiss banks class action lawsuits, a consultant for the US Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations and former director of the Provenance Research Training Program at the Prague-based European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI). From 2005-19, Marc was project director of the Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume.
Prof. Dr. Meike Hopp, Technische Universität Berlin
Prof. Dr. Meike Hopp studied art history in Munich and received her doctorate there in 2012 with the thesis "Kunsthandel im Nationalsozialismus: Adolf Weinmüller in München und Wien". As a research specialist at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ZI) in Munich, she led several projects in the field of provenance research, especially on Nazi looted art, and art market research. In November 2019, she was appointed Professor of Digital Provenance at the Technische Universität Berlin. She is an associate member of the Einstein Center Digital Future and the Science Gallery Berlin. She is chairwoman of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e. V. and the board of trustees of the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (DZK) Magdeburg.
Dr. Bianca Gaudenzi, Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz; German Historical Institute in Rome; Wolfson College, Cambridge
Bianca Gaudenzi is Research Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz and the German Historical Institute in Rome, as well as CRA at Wolfson College, Cambridge. She previously held the posts of Marie Curie Fellow at Konstanz and Junior Research Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Her publications include a Special Section of the Journal of Contemporary History entitled The Restitution of Looted Art in the Twentieth Century: Transnational and Global Perspectives (2017) and a Special Issue of the International Journal of Cultural Property entitled Historicising the Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art, 1945 to the present (2021).
Dr. Nikola Doll, Kunstmuseum Bern
Nikola Doll, PhD heads the Provenance Research Department at the Kunstmuseum Bern where she is responsible for researching the museum's collections and the Cornelius Gurlitt bequest. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from Ruhr University, Bochum with a dissertation on art patronage in National Socialist Germany. Her academic focus is on art and cultural politics in National Socialism and the postwar period especially the looting of art and cultural property as well as provenance research, the history of science, and the history of collecting. Since 2018 she teaches as a lecturer at the Universities of Berne and Geneva.
Sarah Done, Christie’s
Sarah Done joined Christie's in 2003, with a sole focus on Nazi-era restitution from 2004. First researching artworks for sale and now as Director of Restitution, she works principally on the research and resolution dialogue for restitution claims. Sarah contributes to shaping Christie's approach to restitution and establishing its reputation for best practice in this field, working widely with colleagues both in-house and within the restitution community.
These grants combine Christie’s goals to engage with Nazi-era restitution, to expand scholarship into provenance research, and to ensure continued focus on this vital topic, as well as providing support to a new, emerging generation of researchers.’—Sarah Done, Director Christie’s Restitution Department
Explore more from Christie’s Restitution
Reflecting on Restitution: 25 Years of the Washington Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art
Christie’s launches year-long global programme of events spotlighting the history and vital work of Restitution
For over a quarter of a century, Christie’s has engaged with the legacy of Nazi era and World War II art theft and dispossession. Losses during 1933–1945 to Europe’s collections, in particular those of Jewish collectors, through persecution, confiscation, and forced sales continues to resonate strongly in today’s art world. Christie’s has the largest and most experienced Restitution team of any international auction house, underscoring our responsibility to this field.
We invite you to explore our work in Restitution.
To learn more about the Holocaust please visit: Yad Vashem