Plundered Cultures, Stolen Heritage

Montreal, October 30, 2013 - The wars in the Middle East serve as the most recent reminders that widespread humanitarian crises are inevitably accompanied by the theft, looting and destruction of significant cultural artifacts. The questions surrounding cultural pillage will be explored November 6 and 7 at a public conference organized by Concordia University in the D.B. Clarke Theatre (Henry F. Hall Building, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West).

The organizers of the conference Plundered Cultures, Stolen Heritage view the issue of cultural loss as one that crosses national borders. Since Montreal is home to one of the largest Holocaust survivor populations in North America as well as large Armenian and First Nations communities, the central subject will be examined from multiple national perspectives. The scholarly conference aims to reveal the motives and impact of widespread, sustained and systematic assaults on cultural property and heritage. It also explores the means by which communities resist and recover from such assaults.

The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) at Concordia is one of the driving forces behind the conference. Plundered Cultures, Stolen Heritage aims to deepen the intercultural understanding and civic memory of cultural losses as Canada chairs the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) this year. In the last six months, Concordia has worked with IHRA on the return to the Max Stern estate of two Nazi-looted artworks.

The conference kicks off November 6 with a keynote address by Morley Safer, correspondent for CBS News 60 Minutes and an interview of Safer by former CBC investigative journalist Hana Gartner. Although the Safer/Gartner session is sold out, registration is still open for the conference.

View the the full program conference.