> At 16:13 02.03.99 +0000, Patrick Boylan quoted "The Independent" (London)
> of 2 March 1999:
>
> ...
> >The National Gallery will be the first
> >         gallery or museum in the world to go
> >         through its collection to root out
> >         paintings with Nazi links.

==========================================
Fritz is, of course, right - probably more like the 200th or 300th to
start such an exercise, but let's not quibble. (Some of us actively
collecting 20th century German Expressionist etc. art - as at Leicester
where over 150 works were added to the UK's biggest public German
Expressionist collection during my 18 years as Director - never got
ourselves into this position in the first place by refusing to touch
unprovenanced or dubious provenance material, and buying wherever possible
from the artists' families or well documented close associate.  Indeed
the "Leicester Code on the Ethics of Acquisition" of 1973 went virtually
work for word into first the UK Museums Association's Code of Ethics, and
then into the 1986 ICOM Code of Professional Ethics. Sorry, brief pause
while I polish my halo!).

Patrick Boylan

P.S. It was also announced this evening that the British Museum and Tate
Gallery are launching similar exercises in relation to inadequately
provenanced post-1933 acquisitions.