EDMONTON — After the Nazis seized more than 600,000 cultural objects from Jewish owners between 1933 and 1945, University of Alberta law student Gwyneth Pheasant Lust believes restorative justice could offer a more inclusive and sensitive approach to restitution of the artifacts.
Restorative justice is familiar to Canadians for providing healing, reparation and reintegration to Indigenous communities. It is defined by the Canadian government as allowing “those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm to communicate about and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime.”
For her argument, Pheasant Lust won the Faculty of Law’s 2022 Holocaust Remembrance Essay Award, funded by law alumnus Henry Wolfond of Toronto. The international prize honours the best essay written by a law student related to law and the Holocaust. It comes with a $2,300 cash prize.
Renewed interest in Nazi-looted art was sparked by the Munich art hoard, when nearly 1,500 artworks by Picasso and others were discovered in 2012.
“It upset me that Jewish people were stripped of cultural property in ways that were just horrible,” says Pheasant Lust. “I would love to be part of a process that helps restitution and repatriation.”
Even in 2012 — nearly 70 years after the end of the Second World War — it wasn’t clear how to fairly resolve the Munich art hoard case. Litigation can ignore the human element in disputes, including the pain and suffering endured by families whose objects have value far beyond the monetary.
Pheasant Lust suggests settling claims outside the court and incorporating restorative justice can recognize the profound meaning a disputed art object has for both the original owner as well as the current possessor. It also allows for both parties to the dispute to “work together to come to a solution, but on their terms and within their limits,” she says.
One effective form of restitution involves acknowledging the origin of looted art when it is publicly exhibited in a museum or elsewhere, writes Pheasant Lust. Such acknowledgment can amount to an apology, crucial in any restorative justice process.
As Pheasant Lust continues her studies, she hopes to one day help protect cultural property abroad and closer to home, wherever claims to such artifacts are under dispute: it’s “also really important to Indigenous communities and their cultural objects,” she says. “They need to be protected.”
More information is available here. To speak with Gwyneth Pheasant Lust please contact: Sarah Vernon | University of Alberta communications associate | svernon@ualberta.ca