VICTORIA REED TO SPEAK AT PURCHASE COLLEGE: “JEWISH-OWNED ART AND THE NAZIS”

Art looted by the Nazis often makes headlines and even features in popular culture as in the recently-released movie “Monuments Men.” But how does an art museum actually research its collection to find lost, stolen, or smuggled masterpieces?

Art expert Victoria Reed will speak at Purchase College on April 23, 2014 about her experiences as an “art detective” for Nazi-looted art that has made its way into major art collections.

Reed is Curator for Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is responsible for tracing the provenance, or ownership history, of the Museum’s collection, looking for potential seizures, thefts, and losses during the Nazi era and beyond.

“This is the real-life ‘Monuments Men,’” said Professor Rachel Hallote, Coordinator of the Jewish Studies Program at Purchase College “This is part of what museum curators do, and is work that is crucially important. When it is successful, it helps both the museums and the public.”

Reed, who is responsible for the research and documentation of provenance for much of the Museum of Fine Arts encyclopedic collection, reviews the potential acquisitions and loans of the museum, and works on due diligence policies and practice. She has published extensively on matters related to provenance research.

Reed will speak at Purchase College on Wednesday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m., in the Red Room of the Student Services Building at Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY. Admission is free and open to the public. The lecture is made possible by the Samuel G. Fredman Family Program in Holocaust Education in Memory of Mims Fredman. It is one of the highlight public events of the academic year for Purchase College’s Jewish Studies Program.

About Purchase College–SUNY

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspirations for Purchase were to combine on one campus conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences. Today, Purchase College–SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu