Publication details
Perské koberce, hodiny a šavle. Umělecké aukce v poválečném Československu a konfiskovaný majetek
| Title in English | Persian rugs, clocks and sabers. Art Auctions in Post-war Czechoslovakia and Confiscated Property |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Political developments in the early post-war Czechoslovakia led to radical ownership-property and structural-social changes. The quantity of confiscated objects was received in the arts trade, or even directly on the foreign market, through both illegal and legal ways. The permanent, officially unrecorded flow of confiscated artistic assets into private hands led in August 1949 to nationalization of private auction houses under the "Antikva" trademark. The continuing illegal flows of artistic property caused clashes between ministries. Against the attempt to preserve "state cultural assets" in public institutions, the economic interests of the state in the economic crisis stood. The paper based on fragmentary preserved sources reconstructs the situation in the arts auction business between 1945 and 1951. The Brno-based company Karel Ditrich, whose auctions dealed the artistic assets from the estates and chateaux of southern and northern Moravia, serves as an example of the auction house handling the confiscated property. |