Since 2019, the Bavarian National Museum has been looking for the heirs of the last legitimate owners of 111 silver objects confiscated in 1939 and later bought by the museum. They had been part of a gigantic silver levy imposed on German Jews in 1939. By September 2024, sixty-three objects will have been returned, most directly to the families. In fall 2024, Matthias Weniger is bringing twenty more objects to the heirs in the United States. About seventy families are involved in our work. For many of them, the work itself, the newly established contact with distant family members and the exchange with an institution in the country from which their ancestors had been so brutally expelled, means more than the actual objects.

Come hear Dr. Weniger speak about this important project and his role in helping to return these stolen artifacts.