Glance at Culture - Nelson-Atkins Museum's Provenance Specialist: MacKenzie Mallon on Nazi Looted Art, Restitution and Provenance Research

Send us Fan Mail

The following is a link to the Nelson-Atkins Museum's Discriminating Thieves Exhibition.

4:15 How Discriminating Thieves exhibition came about

6:20 Title of Discriminating Thieves exhibition came from correspondence by Nelson-Atkins’ first director Paul Gardner

7:30 One of the four works in the exhibition: painting by German Expressionist Emil Nolde titled Masks 

8:50 Karl Buchholz held Masks for a decade until 1948 when he sent it to dealer Curt Valentin 

11:30 Nolde was a member of Nazi party but still targeted by Nazis

15:00 Pitfalls of researching women

18:00 Marguerite Stern’s ownership of Jean – Francois Ducis’ 1779 Bust of Augustin Pajou 

19:50 Pierre Bonnard’s Still life with Guelder Roses

21:30 Nicolas de Largillière’s Augustus the Strong – erroneously listed on property card as portrait of King Frederick of Denmark 

25:00 2019 Collecting and Provenance: A Multidisciplinary Approach by Jane Milosch, Nick Pearce

25:50 German-American Provenance Research Exchange with the Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative and Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation was a “game changer”

35:35 Guest speaker for Discriminating Thieves Exhibition was Corine Wegener, Director of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative

42:00 The process of provenance research is never finished as new resources become available 

44:30 Importance of research in museum setting by individuals with specialized knowledge

46:30 Cincinnati Art Museum’s exhibition Paintings, Politics and the Monuments Men: The Berlin Masterpieces in America

47:30 Nelson-Atkins’ first curator of European Art Patrick Kelleher was one of the signatories of the Weisbaden Manifesto

Please share your comments and/or questions at [email protected]

Music by Toulme.

To hear more episodes, please visit Warfare of Art and Law podcast's website.

To leave questions or comments about this or other episodes of the podcast and/or for information about joining the 2ND Saturday discussion on art, culture and justice, please message me at [email protected]. 

Thanks so much for listening!

This podcast and its content may not be used for training or developing AI systems without permission.

© Stephanie Drawdy [2026]