STOLEN ART

Title – Documentaries
Episode – Doc: Looted Art: Part II
Date – January 17th, 2008
Time – 22:21
Website – Got it from iTunes , but it’s a BBC podcast, so http://www.bbc.co.uk

Description of Episode from the Podcast producers – “Charles Wheeler is on the trail of art seized by the Soviets at the end of World War II” The Pushkin Museum, Russia

I chose this podcast because I am interested in art, and it’s history, and enjoy listening to or viewing pretty much any documentary by the BBC. It gives me an insight of what’s going on in the world today with some way or another, even if the art involved is much older. The truth is though that the interview of Andy Warhol that Tate created, was 18 minutes and 46 seconds long, not reaching the minimum time limit.
A BBC employee and a member of the Commission of Looted Art in Europe have traveled to Russia, where they seek to find out what has happened to some stolen art.
In the Pushkin Museum in Moscow they discuss with the director about these pieces, taken at the end of World War II by the Red Army. There is an estimate of 100,000 pieces of art that may be being hid in Russia, some taken by an organization put together by Stalin to rid Germany of anything precious they could. 11 million books were taken as well, of which 7 million cannot be found and identified today. In 1945 though, 25 million Soviet Citizens were already dead, the art unprotected, so it wasn’t considered “stealing”.
Besides being stolen though, many pieces were destroyed as well. Russia is a victim of the war as well, but this still doesn’t give them the right to the art, much of which was stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families and surrounding European countries. These pieces must have huge sentimental value for the people they were stolen from, anything that resembles their now lost family.
In the late 1990’s though, a law was passed stating that all this art that was taken was now legally Russian property. Some of these family heirlooms have even been put on public display, and now representatives of the families these belong to are trying to sue. The law is controversial, with the Russia supporting that since now it is their property they have the right and ability to return the art legally, but when asked if any returns have been made, they are simply told that this is none of their business, and say the have pretty much returned everything already. When a walk is taken in the museum, certain works of art that belonged to families where identified.
The radical opinion states that nothing should be returned, whereas the liberal opinion is to give or at least consider giving the art back. People who support the liberal point of view are accused of being unpatriotic. The art is somewhat considered rightfully theirs because of the scars they hold from the war. Russia no longer considers Germany an enemy, but is hesitant still. One of the arguments supporting the radicals is that the Germans never returned anything they took from the Soviet Union, so why should they? Perhaps it turns out that the issue isn’t white or black.
I would suggest that anybody who is interested in current affairs or interesting stories connected with what has happened to art over time, should listen to this podcast, and to the BBC channel in general.