Stolen Art

Speakers for this event

• Brian Daniels

  Brian Daniels

  Brian I. Daniels, Ph.D. is the director of research and programs for the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. Between 2013 and 2018, Dr. Daniels co-directed the Safeguarding the Heritage of Syria and Iraq Project, which supported heritage professionals working to protect museums and archaeological sites in active conflict zones. He has advised the National Museum of Afghanistan and continues to support the Ukrainian Heritage Emergency Rescue Initiative and the Smithsonian Culture Rescue Initiative. Dr. Daniels is First Vice President (President-Elect) of the Archaeological Institute of America and Vice President of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield.

• Elizabeth Gelman

  Elizabeth Gelman

  With a wide-ranging background in education, museums, performance, cultural arts, and economic development, Elizabeth Gelman holds a unique skillset and perspective which emphasizes the role that organizations play within their communities, primarily focusing on the intersection of social justice and the arts and humanities. Gelman spent decades as an artist and arts educator before transitioning into the museum world where she held leadership positions at Terra Museum of American Art, the Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn, Spertus Museum and, most recently, as the Executive Director of The Florida Holocaust Museum. She is currently serving as Curator and Senior Director of Arts and Cultural Programming for Creative Pinellas, Pinellas County's designated arts agency. Gelman is also the creator of the award-winning “Arts Attack” which connects visual art, music, and storytelling through interactive programs and workshops. Trained by MOMA’s Philip Yenawine in his groundbreaking inquiry-based Visual Thinking Strategies, Gelman remains passionate about using the arts to promote critical thinking and deeper understanding of challenging and sensitive topics.

• Howard Spiegler

  Howard Spiegler

  Howard has been involved in several of the best-known and most important litigations brought on behalf of foreign governments and heirs of Holocaust victims and others to recover stolen artwork or other cultural property including representing the Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray to recover a Schiele painting confiscated by a Nazi agent in Austria in the late 1930's, which settled for the full value of the painting; the recovery by the heir of the famous Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker of 200 Nazi-looted artworks from the Dutch Government; the recovery by the heirs of Kazimir Malevich, the world-renowned 20th Century Russian artist, of five important and valuable Malevich paintings, one of which later sold at auction for $60 million, and recoveries on behalf of the Republic of Turkey of numerous valuable antiquities. Howard also handles all types of art transactions. He has published widely on art law and related issues and has had numerous speaking engagements at various universities and law schools throughout the country, including Columbia, Harvard, New York University and Yale, and throughout the world for the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), and other organizations and bar associations, art fairs, museums, auction houses and appraisers. His work has been widely recognized by legal and other professional organizations including a Band 1 ranking in Chambers High Net Worth for Art and Cultural Property Law – USA. Howard co-founded Kaye Spiegler, along with Managing Member Lawrence Kaye, to provide the highest level of service to clients in the art market in matters involving complex art litigation, dispute resolution, notable restitution issues and general commercial art law.

• Jim Laurie

  Jim Laurie

  Jim Laurie is an international writer, lecturer, broadcaster, and media consultant who has witnessed many defining moments in global history in the past 50 years. A recipient of multiple Emmy, Peabody, and Overseas Press Club Awards, Jim roamed the world first for NBC News (1972-1978) and ABC News (1978-2000). For most of his career, he has specialized in Asia – China, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam. He was the only American TV correspondent to cover the fall of Saigon in 1975 and remain to watch the Communist victory. Earlier, he flew out on the US helicopter airlift as Phnom Penh collapsed under the Khmer Rouge onslaught. In July 1981, Jim opened the first network news bureau in Beijing for ABC News. In January-February 1989, he reported on the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and returned to work in Afghanistan in November 2001. In the early 1990’s, based in Moscow, Jim reported on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the start of independence in Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. He is rare among journalists having interviewed Russian leaders Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Vladimir Putin. In October and November 2022, Jim completed a six nation, six lecture global video tour speaking on China today, Vietnam-Cambodia, reflections on Putin’s Invasion, and the history of war reporting. His travels took him to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Jim is the author of ‘THE LAST HELICOPTER: Two Lives in Indochina’ (2020), a memoir of war, love, and survival in Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1970’s.

• Tess Davis

  Tess Davis

  Tess Davis, a lawyer and archaeologist by training, is Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition. Davis oversees the organization’s work to fight cultural racketeering worldwide, as well as its award-winning think tank in Washington. She has been a legal consultant for the US and foreign governments and works with both the art world and law enforcement to keep looted antiquities off the market. She writes and speaks widely on these issues — having been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Foreign Policy, and top scholarly journals — and featured in documentaries in America and Europe. She is admitted to the New York State Bar, teaches cultural heritage law at Johns Hopkins University, and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2015, the Royal Government of Cambodia knighted Davis for her work to recover the country’s plundered treasures, awarding her the rank of Commander in the Royal Order of the Sahametrei.

• Victoria Reed

  Victoria Reed

  Victoria S. Reed was named the Curator for Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), in July 2010. In this role, she is responsible for the research and documentation of the provenance of the MFA’s encyclopedic collection, the review of potential acquisitions and loans, and the development of due diligence policies and practice throughout the curatorial division. Previously, she was the Assistant Curator for Provenance (2008–2010) and Research Fellow for Provenance (2003–2008) in the MFA’s Art of Europe department. Reed has lectured widely and published extensively on matters related to provenance research, museum ethics, and restitution. Her work for the MFA has been featured in media outlets including The Boston Globe, New York Times, and Times of London. Reed received her MA and Ph.D. in art history at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and her BA in liberal arts at Sarah Lawrence College.