News:

After being forced to cancel an auction amid backlash over the items’ links to Nazi Germany, the auction house Christie’s has vowed to research the provenance of objects from the Holocaust era that it auctions off as well as the original sources of wealth used to acquire them in order to ensure they were not looted by Nazis.

In a statement this week, Christie’s said it aims to to understand “the history of the original sources of wealth” used to obtain items it seeks to auction, “particularly when this wealth was built during the Nazi period” from 1933-1945.

“As the ideas and historical perspectives that shape the art world continue to evolve and change, Christie’s continues to adapt and to advance our own understanding and approach to our global business practices,” the auction house added. “As we widen the lens of our research, we are engaged in a current effort to broaden our cataloguing process. In today’s increasingly complex environment, through essential research and important ongoing dialogue, we continue to learn more about the historical record which can best inform our processes and decisions.”

The statement came after Christie’s faced worldwide scrutiny for auctioning jewelry owned by an Austrian art collector whose wealth was amassed by buying Jewish companies sold under duress in Nazi Germany. Despite demands to call off the auction, most of the 700-piece jewelry collection from the estate of Heidi Horten was sold in May. It also set a new record for the world’s most valuable single collection of jewelry to be auctioned  at $202 million.

Christie’s ultimately called off the second half of the auction, scheduled for November, when criticism piled up about Horten’s source of wealth.

Horten’s late husband, German businessman Helmut Horten, was a retail magnate who built his empire in the 1930s by purchasing businesses that Jews were forced to sell by the Nazis. Helmut, who was also a member of the Nazi Party during World War II, left a significant portion of his wealth to his wife when he died in 1987.

The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) welcomed Christie’s statement.

“Provenance research on an item is a key part of art restitution, and at the same time it is essential that we also look at the context and history that lie behind that piece of art,” WJRO President Gideon Taylor told The Algemeiner. “We are seeking not just the restitution of art but also the restitution of history.”