Fokum Evening Lecture Wintersemester 2024/2025
HYBRID EVENT // TU BERLIN / ONLINE
Eléa De Winter, Brüssel, und Fenya Almstadt, Brüssel/Berlin sprechen über:
The Belgian Art Market 1933-1960: from Institutional Players to Commercial Actors. The Role of Moving Companies and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium during the Second World War
Abendvortrag in Kooperation mit den Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, der Université Libre de Bruxelles und dem Fachgebiet Digitale Provenienzforschung an der Technischen Universität Berlin
Datum: 10. Februar 2025, 18:15-19:45 h MEZ
Ort: H 0111 im Hauptgebäude der TU Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin
Die Veranstaltung wird parallel via TU Berlin Zoom übertragen: https://tu-berlin.zoom.us/j/63199001038?pwd=vDhGInsisULAesyi2Qu7LImdoc4mRY.1, Meeting-ID: 631 9900 1038, Password: 399554
++Das Mitschneiden der Veranstaltung oder von Teilen der Veranstaltung sowie Screenshots sind nicht gestattet. Mit der Teilnahme akzeptieren Sie diese Nutzungsbedingungen.++

Anzeige des Umzugsunternehmens La Continentale Menkès im Brüsseler Handels- und Industriealmanach von 1939, Seite 2353. © Brüsseler Archive, Stadt Brüssel.
++Title, abstract and CV are always written in the respective language of presentation.++
Abstract: Despite extensive studies on the seizure of cultural assets across Europe and significant advancements in understanding the mechanisms of Nazi-art looting under occupation, Belgium’s art market remains underexplored. Therefore the ProvEnhance project seeks to establish a methodological framework for Nazi-era provenance research in Belgium. As a case study, ProvEnhance examines a part of the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the correlative art market between pre- and post-war periods through innovative methodologies and archival exploration.
By combining art market studies with provenance research, the project contributes to foundational research, offering new insights into the structures of the Belgian art market as well as actors and objects involved in the art theft and its aftermath.
The lecture will emphasize the synergy of a transnational and dual approach by illustrating the involvement of moving companies in the transportation of seized cultural goods as a specific case example based on the current findings of the two PhD researchers Fenya Almstadt and Eléa De Winter. While presenting their individual ongoing research endeavours, they will shed light on the varying degrees of collaboration by these companies under the German occupation, offering a nuanced perspective on complicity and resistance within this historical framework.
An introduction to the lecture will be provided by Aude Alexandre and Ingrid Goddeeris, the two coordinators of the ProvEnhance project. They will give an overview of the key objectives of the project, retrace antecedents of provenance research in Belgium since WWII and present recent developments in policy, the media and accessibility of sources.
The ProvEnhance project is funded by BELSPO, the Belgian Science Policy Office, and is the outcome of a partnership among four distinct institutions: the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, l’Université libre de Bruxelles, the Department of Digital Provenance at Technische Universität Berlin, and the Belgian Study and Documentation Centre for War and Contemporary Society (CEGESOMA). In addition, an international committee composed of specialists in provenance research, art market studies, and digital humanities oversees the project.
Aude Alexandre is Head of the Institutional Archives at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB). Since 2023 she has been coordinating, with Ingrid Goddeeris, the research project ProvEnhance, financed by the Belgian Federal Science Policy (Belspo). From 2022 to 2024, she also served as a lecturer in Archival Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Before joining the RMFAB, she had an extensive career in scientific and university libraries in Belgium (ULiège, ULB), France (EHESS) and Italy (Academia Belgica). She holds a BA in Art history (University of Namur, 1999), a MA in Languages and Literatures (Université libre de Bruxelles, Indo-European Languages, 2002), a degree in Specialized Studies in Information Sciences & Technology (Université libre de Bruxelles, 2004), and a degree in Archival Studies (Vatican School of Palaeography, Diplomatics and Archives Administration, 2008).
Ingrid Goddeeris has worked at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB) for 25 years, first at the institutional archives and since 2003 as head of the museum library. Her research focuses on the Belgian and international art market of the 19th century, with particular attention to the network of art dealers and provenance research, which is also the subject of her Phd in preparation. Because of her interest in the reverse of paintings, in particular collectors‘ marks and seals, she joined the team of the Jordaens Van Dyck Panel Paintings Project in 2018. She is also a member of the research group Cultural History since 1750 at KU Leuven. Together with Aude Alexandre, she has been coordinating the ProvEnhance research project since 2023. Ingrid holds an MA in History of Art (KU Leuven, 1997), an additional degree in History (KU Leuven, 1998) and in Archives & Records Management (VUB, KU Leuven, UGent, 1999).
Fenya Almstadt studied art history, history and social and cultural anthropology in Berlin, Potsdam and Rennes. Since October 2023 she is a PhD researcher within the ProvEnhance project, investigating the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium’s (RMFAB) acquisitions, practices and networks between 1933-1960 as well as the implications of Nazi-looting of cultural assets in Belgium. Her research interests include Nazi-era provenance research and the 20th century art market with a special focus on the role of female actors. Previously she assisted a provenance research project at the Liebermann Villa on Lake Wannsee, worked for the foundation ZURÜCKGEBEN as well as a freelance referee at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum. Fenya is affiliated to the Brussels Art Markets Laboratory (ULB) and the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung in Germany.
Eléa De Winter (1994) studied art history at Ghent University (2021). Since October 2023 she is preparing a PhD on the art market in Belgium between 1933-1960 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in collaboration with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Technische Universität Berlin and CegeSoma. This doctoral project is part of the ProvEnhance project – Enhancing the provenance data of the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB) since 1933. Scientific study, digital valorization and narrative in context. Eléa is an affiliated researcher at the research group Art in Belgium since 1945 (UGent) and the Brussels Art Markets Laboratory (ULB).