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Looted

Personal stories about the looting and restitution of Jewish cultural property

What does it mean to have everything taken away – your civil rights, freedom, dignity – and then to be robbed of your most valued possessions? This exhibition examines eight personal stories of Jews who lost all they had to the Nazi regime.

For survivors and heirs of those Jews who were killed, the end of the Holocaust marked the start of the long search for their possessions. And the bitter struggle to recover both their property and their dignity.

Pain

Looted brings the audience into a world of art, children’s drawings, photos, ceremonial objects and books. First-hand documents and interviews convey the underlying narrative: the pain that victims continue to feel to this day.

Catalogue

The book Dispossessed. Personal Stories of Nazi-looted Jewish Cultural Property and Postwar Restitution is being released to accompany the exhibition.

Symposium

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam ― in collaboration with the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V. (International Professional Association for Provenance Research), the Jewish Cultural Quarter and Sotheby's ― is proud to present the two-day symposium Looted on 9 and 10 September 2024.

Collaboration

The exhibition Looted, is a co-production of the Rijksmuseum and the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam and will run from 31 May to 27 October 2024 at the Jewish Museum and the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.

Thanks

The exhibition is made possible with support from de VriendenLoterij, Stichting Collectieve Maror-gelden Nederland, Democracy & Media Foundation, Vfonds, Mondriaan Fonds, het Cultuurfonds, Stichting Levi Lassen and Friends of the Jewish Cultural Quarter.

The publication of Dispossessed. Personal Stories of Nazi-looted Jewish Cultural Property and Postwar Restitution is made possible in part by Stichting Makaria, Vfonds, Mondriaan Fonds and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg.

The symposium Looted is made possible in part by Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V., Vfonds, Mondriaan Fonds and Sotheby’s.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

May 31 – 27 Oct.

Where

Jewish Museum
National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam
10 things

Looted

A collaborative exhibition between the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter
De Gouden Bocht in de Herengracht in Amsterdam vanuit het westen De Gouden Bocht in de Herengracht in Amsterdam vanuit het westen

De Gouden Bocht in de Herengracht in Amsterdam vanuit het westen, Gerrit Berckheyde, 1672

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Standaard voor een altaarkruis Standaard voor een altaarkruis

Standaard voor een altaarkruis, anonymous, c. 1170

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Allegorie op de verzorging in het Oudemannen- en vrouwengasthuis Allegorie op de verzorging in het Oudemannen- en vrouwengasthuis

Allegorie op de verzorging in het Oudemannen- en vrouwengasthuis, Barend Graat, 1683 - before 1685

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Man met een baard, wandelstok en hoge hoed, in profiel naar links Man met een baard, wandelstok en hoge hoed, in profiel naar links

Man met een baard, wandelstok en hoge hoed, in profiel naar links, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, 1944

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Dientafel met bovenblad van wit marmer en achterwand met spiegel Dientafel met bovenblad van wit marmer en achterwand met spiegel

Dientafel met bovenblad van wit marmer en achterwand met spiegel, Claude-Charles Saunier, c. 1780 - c. 1790

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Hanger van goud, email, parels en edelstenen. In het midden Cimon en Pero, geheel geëmailleerd. Hanger van goud, email, parels en edelstenen. In het midden Cimon en Pero, geheel geëmailleerd.

Hanger van goud, email, parels en edelstenen. In het midden Cimon en Pero, geheel geëmailleerd., , 1585 - 1600

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Coffee and Tea Service, of the Morosini family Coffee and Tea Service, of the Morosini family

Coffee and Tea Service, of the Morosini family, Meissener Porzellan Manufaktur, 1731

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In the exhibition