Co-Chairs David Lewis and Anne Webber
David Lewis CBE, together with Anne Webber, is founder and Co-Chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE), and co-founder of the Central Registry of Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945 at www.lootedart.com, set up in 2001 as an independent charitable body in order to fulfil Washington Principle Vl, The Registry is an international research centre and online repository of detailed research, news and information from 49 countries and an onine database of 25,000 objects.
David Lewis is a Governor of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and formerly Chairman of its Library. From 1992 to 1999 he was President of the European Council of Jewish Communities. Formerly a trustee of The Wiener Library, the Institute of Jewish Studies and the LJCC, he is Honorary Fellow of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Email:
davidlewis@lootedartcommission.com
Anne Webber CBE, together with David Lewis, is founder and Co-Chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE) set up in 1999, and co-founder and Director of the Central Registry of Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945 at www.lootedart.com, set up in 2001 as an independent charitable body in order to fulfil Washington Principle Vl,. The Registry is an international research centre and online repository of detailed research, news and information from 49 countries and an onine database of 25,000 objects.
Anne Webber was a member of the drafting team of Council of Europe Resolution 1205 (1999) on the restitution of looted cultural property in Europe, on the organising committee of the Vilnius International Forum 2000 and the Prague Conference 2009 and was a member of the Advisory Council of the European Shoah Legacy Institute from 2010-2017 when it ceased operation. Her documentary film, 'Making A Killing', made for UK's Channel 4 and transmitted across the world, focuses on the decades' long search by the Gutmann family for their looted artworks.
She is a member of the British Spoliation Advisory Committee which has advised on the provenance research work of British museums since 1999. She co-authored the Spoliation Conference Action Plan of the 2017 London Conference '70 Years and Counting: The Final Opportunity?' adopted by the five European restitution committees and their governments. She was a member of the Hunt Museum Review Group and on the Executive Board of the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property. CLAE was responsible for identifying, describing and introducing the UK Nazi-era cultural property records available in The National Archives (UK). She was involved in conceiving and writing the Best Practices for the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, issued by the US State Department in March 2024 and endorsed by 26 governments internationally.
She founded and chaired the UK's International Tracing Service (ITS) (Arolsen Archives) Stakeholder Committee which negotiated the UK taking a digital copy of the ITS (Arolsen) records to be housed at The Wiener Library, London. For ten years until 2018, she was the sole non-governmental member of the UK Government Delegation to the International Commission which governs the ITS, and is a member of The Wiener Library's ITS Oversight Committee. She is a member of the Board of the World Jewish Restitution Organisation (WJRO), representing the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC), Governor of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Trustee of the Jewish Literary Foundation and Jewish Book Week, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Awards and Honours
In 2014, she was awarded the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) 2014 award for Lifetime Achievement in Defense of Art "which recognizes her years of excellence in the field as founder and director of the Commission for Looted Art In Europe".
On 17 June 2023, she was awarded a CBE for 'services to the Return of Looted Art' in the King's Birthday Honours List. One of the United Kingdom's highest honours, the CBE - Commander of the Order of the British Empire - is awarded to individuals with a prominent role who have made a distinguished and innovative contribution.
Selected Profiles
The Art of War Harper's Bazaar 3 October 2013
Gurlitt ist nur der Anfang - Gurlitt is Only the Beginning Tagesspiegel 19 November 2013
Dealing with Nazi-looted art is Germany’s Achilles’ heel Haaretz 25 February 2014
Campaigner’s new hope over battle for looted art The Jewish Chronicle 28 February 2014
The Jewish Chronicle also published a leader on 28 February 2014 arising from the profile, with the title Merkel must do more on looted art.
Beyond the Woman In Gold: On the hunt for the Nazis' looted art Ham&High 9 April 2015
The art sleuth who liberated Nazi loot The Times 14 June 2022
Selected Broadcast and Print Media:
Making A Killing Channel 4 Television 28 July 1998
It’s My Story: Looted Art BBC Radio 4 3 August 2006
Twice Looted or Twice Stolen? BBC Radio 4 4 September 2007
The Private Life of a Christmas Masterpiece BBC 2 Television 25 December 2010
Fake or Fortune BBC1 Television 10 July 2011
Heir Hunters BBC1 8 March 2013
Imagine: The Art That Hitler Hated BBC1 Television 28 October 2014
Imagine: The Sins of the Fathers BBC1 Television 4 November 2014
Munich's Looted Art Bazaar Sueddeutsche Zeitung 25 June 2016
Hitler vs Picasso and the Others April 2018
Plunderer PBS documentary November 2024
annewebber@lootedartcommission.com