Pillaged Artworks in the Dark
Efforts to Determine the Provenance of Art in Finland
Maarit Hakkarainen, Tiina Koivulahti
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Finland was for a long time reluctant to clarify the fate of lost works of art pillaged by the Nazis. This has something to do with the official Finish understanding of history, which does not ascribe the country much responsibility for such losses, since Finland did not fight on Nazi Germany’s side, but conducted a separate war against the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944. As a result of meticulous research into the provenance of certain works of art, the recognition is slowly setting in that unlawfully expropriated art could have made its way even to this country, which otherwise lies on the periphery of the international art market.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2006, pp. 329–340)