From Perpetrators to Victims? The Role of Karol Estreicher’s Card Index in Today’s Provenance Studies - Instytut Pileckiego

From Perpetrators to Victims? The Role of Karol Estreicher’s Card Index in Today’s Provenance Studies

18.03, 12.00 | Pariser Platz 4A, 10117 Berlin | Anmeldung: events@pileckiinstitu.de 

The project examines the Index of Persons compiled by the Polish art historian Karol Estreicher (1906–1984) as an early instrument of actor- and violence-oriented provenance research. In contrast to object-centered approaches, Estreicher systematically documented individuals, institutions, and networks involved in Nazi art looting already during the Second World War. The index renders art looting visible as a form of bureaucratically mediated violence organized through a division of labor and enables the reconstruction of entanglements between perpetrators, intermediaries, and profiteers. It thus offers methodological potential for network-analytical approaches and for integration into digital, internationally connected research infrastructures for provenance research.

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