Research on Provenance at the National Library

As part of an agreement signed on 27 January 2021 between the State of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Israelite Consistory of Luxembourg, research on the provenance of artworks and other cultural assets is underway in three Luxembourgish institutions, including the BnL.

Researcher Marc Adam Kolakowski, from the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), has been tasked with conducting an in-depth study on the provenance of the BnL’s collections. This initiative follows the principles established during the Washington Conference on 3 December 1998 (Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art) and the Terezin Declaration of 30 June 2009. Documents identified as having been looted will be returned in accordance with these international agreements.

As part of this effort, all documents at the BnL that are part of the Non-Luxembourgish Collection and were published before 1945 will be analysed. Books will be carefully reviewed for any signs of provenance, such as ex-libris, dedications, ownership inscriptions or stamps. More than 50,000 documents will be examined between mid-September 2024 and the end of February 2025, which may render some books temporarily unavailable for lending during this period.