The Orpheus Clock: Art Researcher and Author Simon Goodman On Nazi-Looted Art, the Gutmann Collection, the HEAR Act, the Washington Principles, Provenance Research and Dutch Restitution Policy
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For more information, please have a look at The Orpheus Clock by Simon Goodman.
Show Notes:
3:00 Simon Goodman\\u2019s background that led to writing The Orpheus Clock
4:30 Location of first looted painting in Chicago in 1995 led to first restitution suit in U.S.\\xa0
7:00 Nazi inventories and handwritten note by Gutmann gave evidence of looted works; works were sent for safekeeping in Switzerland, the Netherlands and the U.S.
10:30 Anne Webber\\u2019s documentary about the Gutmann story, Making a Killing
17:00 Post-war, claimants were required to file individual claimants; Goodman\\u2019s father, for example, filed over 1,000 individual claims with the Dutch government
20:00 Goodman\\u2019s senate judiciary testimony to extend the statute of limitations for restitution claims; issues that make locating works difficult include change of dimensions, titles, attributions, etc.
24:00 Avoiding litigation in favor of negotiations\\xa0
30:00 6-7 successful restitutions from Dutch Committee with one pending and a claim to be filed against a museum in the Hague\\xa0
32:00 Goodman\\u2019s complaints to Dutch Committee about its change of direction to deny claimants based on revisionist thinking that museums have feelings and care about what\\u2019s in storage; and adoption of the concept of good and bad heirs
35:00 Right of inheritance and right to private property are international principles that should be observed
39:00 Potential claims for return of Goodman\\u2019s family home Bosbeek; expectation that one in a concentration camp was still expected to pay their mortgage and property taxes; and government refusal to re-write laws to address these types of injustices
41:00 Shares of the bank that the family founded in Germany
42:00 Simon focuses on the art because searching for beautiful thinks makes the search tolerable compared with searching for the missing insurance policies
43:00 Impediments to heirs include lack of evidence\\xa0
49:00 The Orpheus Clock was used as the title of the book because of its symbolism on many levels, including that it was the first direct restitution from a German official body
\\xa051:00 Restitution for Simon\\u2019s grandmother\\u2019s fur coats
52:00 Restitution of Orpheus Clock triggered need to revive family trust and to create compact with remaining cousins, which helped to restore familial relationships broken by the Holocaust
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Music by Toulme.
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Thanks so much for listening!
\\xa9 Stephanie Drawdy [2024]