LOS ANGELES — The Armenian Genocide Research Program (AGRP) of the Promise Armenian Institute (PAI) at UCLA is sponsoring an East Coast lecture series titled, “Nazi Looted Art Recovery as a Model for Recovery of AGLA: Armenian Genocide Looted Art, ” to take place in early May.
This lecture series, featuring Dr. Taner Akçam and Professor Michael Bazyler, will explore efforts to identify and recover Armenian art looted during the Armenian Genocide — and to establish “Armenian Genocide Looted Art” (AGLA) as both a term and a framework for justice.
The AGLA movement is part of a broader, decades-long international effort to secure the restitution of culturally significant objects stolen during historical atrocities. That movement found its footing with Nazi-looted art recovery, and leading Holocaust restitution advocate Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat has described the extension of these principles to other communities as “the ripple effect” — one driven by the pursuit of “a measure of justice.” AGLA seeks to bring Armenian victims of genocide into that same arc of accountability. Ambassador Eizenstat was the principal negotiator of the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art with 44 countries, which continues to be a basis for recovery and compensation for Nazi-looted art and is the model for restitution of AGLA.
The program will touch on UCLA’s Armenian Genocide Looted Art Research Project (AGLARP), which brings together law students and art students — many of them Armenian-Americans — to search museum and institutional collections for Armenian art objects, aiming to create a comprehensive list of all Armenian art in the United States and their provenances. The AGLARP specifically seeks to identify objects looted during or after the Armenian Genocide.
Bazyler of Chapman University will discuss how models of Nazi-looted art recovery can inform this work, highlighting the legal and historical dimensions of restitution efforts. AGRP Director Dr. Taner Akçam will provide additional context on the Armenian Genocide and the scholarly significance of this groundbreaking initiative.
The lecture series will take place across three cities in early May. The first event is in New York City on Friday, May 1 at 6:30 PM ET, held in the Skylight Room at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Ave). The second lecture takes place in Fair Lawn, NJ on Monday, May 4 at 7:30 PM at St. Leon Armenian Apostolic Church (12-61 Saddle River Rd). The series concludes in Boston, on Tuesday, May 5 at 7:30 PM at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), located at 395 Concord Avenue, Belmont.
