Re-imagining communities through cultural property restitition: the Austrian, Italian and (West) German cases, 1945-1998

该项目分析了战后奥地利、意大利和（西德）德国从第二次世界大战结束到1998年签署《关于纳粹没收艺术品的华盛顿宣言》期间被掠夺文化财产的归还过程。该项目被视为冷战和1989年后欧洲背景下的归还社会史，调查归还对地方，民族和欧洲身份的影响及其在接受或驳回这三个国家法西斯历史过程中的相关性。本项目认为，归还文化财产在这三个后法西斯国家寻求重塑其特性的过程中发挥了核心作用，因此，本项目着手测试归还做法在多大程度上构成了1945年至1998年期间国家建设进程的一个关键组成部分。具体而言，将调查的是公众关于归还的讨论（特别是在政治演讲、议会辩论和新闻界）与归还委员会、司法或金融机构和博物馆遵循的日常归还做法之间的相互作用。该项目将通过审查六个案例研究- 3个公共和3个私人犹太收藏-沿着历史交叉和“纠缠的历史”的理论进行。通过话语和内容分析，将审查四种主要来源：1）与归还辩论和立法有关的官方文件2）新闻文章3）展览和拍卖目录4）私人文件，信件，回忆录。因此，该项目将联合收割机结合对地方社区和行为者-包括政治家、记者、博物馆馆长、合法所有者-的关注，以及对地方和国家一级的身份政治的透彻分析。采取跨国办法有几个好处。它允许1）审查国家归还进程如何嵌入更广泛的跨国话语和实践中; 2）比较Vergangenheitsbewältigung进程在所有三个国家的演变方式，并评估哪些文化概念-地方，民族或欧洲-有助于每个国家试图远离其法西斯历史;（3）查明三个国家之间相互作用的轨迹和共同的转折点;（4）测试有关国家之间的跨国纠葛和跨国犹太归还机构的活动如何随着时间的推移影响犹太财产的归还进程，以及为什么; 5）突出两次世界大战之间和第二次世界大战期间在人员、实践和立法方面的实际连续性及其对战后方法的影响。通过评估归还过程实际上在多大程度上促进了更广泛的（重建）民族和欧洲特性的努力，该项目将首次对后法西斯时代和1989年后欧洲背景下文化财产归还的政治作用进行跨国审查

This project analyses the process of restitution of looted cultural property in post-war Austria, Italy and (West) Germany from the end of the Second World War to the signing of the "Washington Declaration on Nazi-confiscated Art" in 1998. Conceived as a social history of restitution in the context of Cold War and post-1989 Europe, the project investigates the impact of restitution on local, national and European identities and its relevance in the process of acceptance or dismissal of these three countries' fascist past. Arguing that the restitution of cultural property played a central role in these three post-fascist countries' quest to refashion their identities, this project sets out to test to what extent restitution practices constituted a key component of the process of nation building between 1945 and 1998. In particular, what will be under investigation is the interplay between public discourses of restitution, present especially in political speeches, parliamentary debates and the press, and everyday restitution practices followed by restitution committees, judicial or financial institutions and museums. The project will be conducted through the examination of six case studies - 3 public and 3 private Jewish collections - along the theories of histoire croisée and 'entangled history'. Four main types of sources will be examined through discourse and content analysis: 1) official documents relating to restitution debates and legislation 2) press articles 3) exhibition and auction catalogues 4) private papers, correspondence, memoirs. The project will thereby combine a focus on local communities and actors - including politicians, journalists, museum curators, rightful owners - with a thorough analysis of identity politics at local and national levels. There are several benefits to adopting a transnational approach. It allows to 1) examine how national processes of restitution were embedded in broader transnational discourses and praxis; 2) compare the way the process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung evolved in all three countries and assess what concepts of culture - local, national or European - were conducive to each country's attempt to distance itself from its fascist past; 3) detect trajectories of interaction and common turning points among the three countries; 4) test how transnational entanglements between the countries in question and the activities of transnational Jewish restitution agencies affected the process of restitution of Jewish property over time, and why; 5) highlight tangible continuities with the interwar and WWII years in terms of personnel, practices and legislation and their impact on postwar approaches. By assessing the extent to which restitution processes actually fed into broader attempts to (re)-construct national and European identities, the project will provide the first transnational examination of the political role of cultural property restitution in the context of post-fascist and post-1989 Europe