This Summer 2018, Professor Hackney will be teaching a 3-hr credit on International Art Law. For those of you interested in Art Law, or even just interested in the relationship of art to Europe, Professor Hackney has a few recommendations of books and films he thinks you might enjoy as you think about your time studying in Europe.
Movies
I think you guys might really enjoy a couple of movies that raise some of the issues we will discuss this summer in Art Law. The first is A Woman in Gold from 2015 with Helen Mirren. It is about Nazi stolen art and a Vienna family. It does a great job of exploring the relationship of law to society and to art. I think you will love it. The second movie you might check out is a 1961 film called The Train, with Burt Lancaster. In it, a Nazi General is trying to ship a trainload of valuable modern art to Germany towards the end of WWII. The allies are coming and a group of Frenchman, from the French Resistance, decide to try to stop the train from getting to Germany. It does a nice job of presenting the issues of art and war and what obligations we might have in protecting these treasures. The French Resistance has a strong connection to Lyon as its leader Jean Moulin is the namesake of the Lyon University where we will hold classes. There is also an impressive museum near to the Universite’ dedicated to the French Resistance.
Books
There are a couple of great popular books you might read as well. The first is called Chasing Aphrodite by Felch and Frammolino. Great book that looks at the J Paul Getty museum and its trafficking in looted antiquities. There is a website today devoted to the major issues of art raised by this book when published. It is here: https://chasingaphrodite.com/
The other book is The Rape of Europa by Nicholas. This is a look at the meticulous efforts by the Nazis to steal art from all over Europe during WWII.