An Introduction to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art

• Tuesday,  16 September 2025, 12.00 - 14.00 (online); 
• Monday, 13 October 2025, 8.00 - 18.00 (Geneva)
• Tuesday, 14 October 2025, 8.00 - 18.00 (Geneva)
• Thursday, 11 December 2025, 8.00 - 18.00 (Zurich)
• Friday, 12 December 2025, 8.00 - 18.00 (Zurich)

Presence is mandatory.

For students enrolled at the University of Zurich, registration is required to participate in the first course (online).

! Please find the link for the first online session on OLAT !

The Washington Principles, yet soft law, have an enormous effect on the work of museums and collections that possess works of art that changed hands between 1933 and 1945. The course "An Introduction to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art" will analyze the basic ideas of this document and its legal and ethical implications. It will look at the practices of courts and restitution committees in their search for just and fair solutions.

In this course, students will be introduced to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art which play a major role for provenance research in public and private art collections. Students will understand the basic ideas of these principles, both in substance and procedure. The course will confront students with the crossroads of law and ethics in an important practical field. Students are invited to think beyond the relatively narrow scope of the Washington Principles and discuss the reparation of other historical injustices through the lens of these principles.

The course is given in collaboration with the University of Geneva. Two days of seminars will take place in Zurich and two days in Geneva and visits related to the course will be organised.

Visiting fees are covered, but students are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses.

In lieu of a final examination, students will prepare a short research paper discussing one (or more) research question(s) under the Washington Principles.

Submission-Deadline for the topic: 30th of September

The proposed case with the research question(s) will be presented by the students at the end of the semester.

• Antoinette Maget Dominicé (UNIGE)
• Vanessa Ruegger (UNIGE)
• Felix Uhlmann (UZH)