Professor Norman Palmer
The recovery of Nazi looted art

Lecture The recovery of Nazi looted art
Date Wednesday 18 July 2001
Time 6.00pm
Venue James O. Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia
Admission Free

Professor Norman Palmer is visiting Australia as a guest of the National Gallery of Australia

The Recovery of Nazi Looted Art
How to deal with Nazi looted art has been one of the most hotly debated topics in the art world. The integrity and ethics of museums and private collections come under scrutiny when the provenance of works of art are questioned. In his illustrated lecture 'The recovery of Nazi looted art', Professor Norman Palmer will outline some of the issues and discuss their implications for museums and private collectors.

Professor Norman Palmer
Norman Palmer is Professor of Commercial Law at University College London. He is the author of a number of publications which deal with the recovery of stolen art, in particular works of art looted from European collections during the Second World War. His recent research has focussed on the repatriation of human remains: he is a member of the UK Ministerial Working Group on Human Remains in Museum Collections.

Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Panel on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects
In December 2000, The Panel reported to the Minister for the Arts, making 16 recommendations for the suppression of the illicit trade, and was reappointed as a standing committee to invigilate the implementation of its reforms.

Other UK cultural policy committees

• Treasure Valuation Committee which advises the Minister on the rewards payable to persons involved in the discovery of portable antiquities (chair)
• Ministerial Working Group on Human Remains in Museum Collections which advises on the proper destination and treatment of human, funerary and associated spiritual material in the public domain (chair)
• Spoliation Advisory Panel which assists in the resolution of claims to cultural objects which were the subject of looting or other dispossession during the period 1933-45.
• ArtResolve a not-for-profit body formed to promote the out-of-court resolution of claims to cultural and related objects

Publications

• Museums and the Holocaust (2000)
• The Recovery of Stolen Art (1998)
• Art Loans (1997)
• Founder and editor of the quarterly journal Art Antiquity and Law
• Numerous other works on cultural law, personal property and common and commercial law.

Legal adviser to

• National Gallery of Victoria
• British Museum
• Courtauld Institute Galleries
• Institute of Art and Law

Papers include Turner Memorial Lecture at the University of Tasmania, Heritage, History and Inhumanity: Dismantling the Nazi Art Machine.

Professor Palmer taught at the University of Tasmania from 1974 to 1977.

Further Information
Greg Marginson Manager, Public Programs +61 2 6240 6524
David Sequeira Coordinator, Public Programs +61 2 6240 6524
Erica Persak General Manager, Collections Services +61 2 6240 6524