Lauren Stapleton

Honors in Art History

Major: Art History and Philosophy & Religion

Supervisor: Amy Kirschke, Art and Art History

To Whom Does it Belong – The Restitution of Nazi Looted Art and the Question of Ownership

World War II saw the greatest systematic plundering of works of art in history. Unlike previous wars where the spoils of war go to the winner, the Third Reich had funding and massive personnel assigned to the researching and assembling of prized art collections in Europe. More often than not, these collections would end up in the personal collections of high-ranking Nazi officials, such as Adolph Hitler and Hermann Göring, or in the Linz museum. When the war was over in 1945, the rest of the world saw for the first time the extent of the looting that took place and the disorder that was met when Allied forces attempted to return the caches of art work. The effects of the looting are still being dealt with today. Instead of it being a simple matter of returning stolen goods, pieces of art have changed hands numerous times, and in some cases have end up in the collections of major museums. This leads to the key question and the focus of this research: to whom does the stolen art belong? Such a question has to be answered and executed in a delicate manner due to the nature of the theft, and remains a volatile subject being argued by museums, lawyers, private collectors and families of the victims.