Group show
Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art
20 Aug 2021 — 9 Jan 2022 at Jewish Museum
· New York City
Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art, presented at the Jewish Museum in New York City from 2021 through January 2022, examines the complex and often heartbreaking histories of artworks stolen during the Nazi era.
The exhibition moves beyond questions of legal ownership and restitution to focus on the human dimension: the families separated from their possessions, the collectors and dealers caught in the machinery of persecution, and the objects themselves as witnesses to rupture and survival.
Through archival documents, photographs, correspondence, and the works of art themselves, Afterlives reconstructs the journeys these objects have taken — from the homes and collections where they once belonged, through confiscation, sale, and dispersal, to their present locations. Each story illuminates a broader history of cultural plunder and the ongoing effort to restore not just property, but memory and identity.
The exhibition moves beyond questions of legal ownership and restitution to focus on the human dimension: the families separated from their possessions, the collectors and dealers caught in the machinery of persecution, and the objects themselves as witnesses to rupture and survival.
Through archival documents, photographs, correspondence, and the works of art themselves, Afterlives reconstructs the journeys these objects have taken — from the homes and collections where they once belonged, through confiscation, sale, and dispersal, to their present locations. Each story illuminates a broader history of cultural plunder and the ongoing effort to restore not just property, but memory and identity.
About the venue
Jewish Museum
· New York City
The Jewish Museum is an art museum housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the Felix M. Warburg House, along the Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The museum holds a collection of approximately 30,000 objects, including religious artifacts, fine art, and media, making it one…
