Anne Webber CBE, together with David Lewis, is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE), set up in 1999.
In 2001, in order to fulfil Washington Principle Vl, she and David Lewis founded the Central Registry of Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945, www.lootedart.com, as an independent charitable body. The Registry is an international research centre and online repository of detailed research, news and information from 49 countries with an online database of 25,000 objects.
The Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE) is an international, expert and non-profit representative body which negotiates restitution policies and procedures with governments and museums worldwide. CLAE acts on behalf of families, cultural institutions and governments to research, identify and recover their looted cultural property, and has achieved the restitution of over 3,500 items of cultural property. It promotes access to records and the identification of looted cultural property and the tracing of its rightful owners.
CLAE is a partner in the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property and was responsible for identifying, describing and introducing the UK Nazi-era cultural property records available in The National Archives (UK).
Anne Webber was a member of the drafting team of Council of Europe Resolution 1205 (1999) on the restitution of looted cultural property in Europe, on the organising committee of the Vilnius International Forum 2000 and the Prague Conference 2009 and was a member of the Advisory Council of the European Shoah Legacy Institute from 2010-2017 when it ceased operation. Her documentary film, 'Making A Killing', made for UK's Channel 4 and transmitted across the world, focuse on the decades' long search by the Gutmann family for their looted art.
She is a member of the British Spoliation Advisory Committee which has advised on the provenance research work of British museums since 1999. She co-authored the 2017 Spoliation Conference Action Plan, the formal outcome,adopted by the five European restitution committees, of the 2017 London Conference '70 Years and Counting: The Final Opportunity?'. She was a member of the Hunt Museum Review Group and on the Executive Board of the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property.
She founded and chaired the UK's International Tracing Service (ITS) Stakeholder Committee which negotiated the UK taking a digital copy of the ITS records to be housed at The Wiener Library, London. She was for several years a member of the UK Government Delegation to the International Commission which governs the ITS, and is a member of The Wiener Library's ITS Oversight Committee. She is a member of the Board of the World Jewish Restitution Organisation (WJRO), representing the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC), Governor of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Trustee of the Jewish Book Council and Jewish Book Week, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
In 2014, "as founder and director of the Commission for Looted Art In Europe", she was awarded the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) 2014 award for Lifetime Achievement in Defense of Art "which recognizes her many decades of excellence in the field".
On 17 June 2023, as co-founder and co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, she was awarded a CBE for 'services to the Return of Looted Art' in the King's Birthday Honours. One of the United Kingdom's highest honours, the CBE - Commander of the Order of the British Empire - is awarded to individuals with a prominent role who have made a distinguished and innovative contribution.
Selected Profiles
The Art of War Harper's Bazaar 3 October 2013
Gurlitt ist nur der Anfang - Gurlitt is Only the Beginning Tagesspiegel 19 November 2013
Dealing with Nazi-looted art is Germany’s Achilles’ heel Haaretz 25 February 2014
Campaigner’s new hope over battle for looted art The Jewish Chronicle 28 February 2014
The Jewish Chronicle also published a leader on 28 February 2014 arising from the profile, with the title Merkel must do more on looted art.
Beyond the Woman In Gold: On the hunt for the Nazis' looted art Ham&High 9 April 2015
The art sleuth who liberated Nazi loot The Times 14 June 2022
Selected Broadcast and Print Media:
Making A Killing Channel 4 Television 28 July 1998
It’s My Story: Looted Art BBC Radio 4 3 August 2006
Twice Looted or Twice Stolen? BBC Radio 4 4 September 2007
The Private Life of a Christmas Masterpiece BBC2 Television 25 December 2010
Fake or Fortune BBC1 Television 10 July 2011
Heir Hunters BBC1 Television 8 March 2013
Cover-Up that shames Germany Jewish Chronicle 7 November 2014
Imagine: The Art That Hitler Hated BBC1 Television 28 October 2014
Imagine: The Sins of the Fathers BBC1 Television 4 November 2014
Munich's Looted Art Bazaar Sueddeutsche Zeitung 25 June 2016
Hitler vs Picasso and the Others April 2018
Email:
annewebber@lootedart.com