Holocaust Art Restitution Project
The Holocaust Art Restitution Project was co-founded in September 1997 in Washington, DC, by Ori Z. Soltes, Willi Korte, and Marc Masurovsky to document cultural property losses suffered by Jewish individuals, families, and institutions between 1933 and 1945 at the hands of the National Socialists and their Fascist allies across continental Europe; to conduct historical research into the wartime and postwar fate of stolen, confiscated, misappropriated cultural property.
During his tenure in leadership purchasing positions at Sanofi-Aventis, Pierre negotiated many complex multi-year contracts with strategic suppliers. In addition, with the law firm of Proskauer Rose and with the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, Pierre gained significant experience in the areas of commercial litigation on behalf of highly regulated clients, class action suits, as well as defending civil and criminal investigations.
Due to his extensive business experience, Pierre has the industry insight to guide clients through sophisticated transactions. On behalf of Sanofi-Aventis U.S., he negotiated many long-term contracts in the areas of financial services, human resources, sales force support, information technology, consulting services and travel. He also managed the overall purchasing budget and budget forecasting process, while consistently delivering significant savings.
At Proskauer Rose, Pierre challenged reimbursement rates against New York State on behalf of healthcare institutions, provided critical regulatory and compliance guidance to corporate clients, and assisted litigation teams to support client’s claims before arbitration panels.
At the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, Pierre was intimately involved with class action lawsuits against state and county agencies to enforce federal benefit programs on behalf of poor Americans.
As a PAC delegate to a not-for-profit group, Pierre successfully challenged election results before the French Highest Court. Wortsman v. Kouchner, n° 329196, Conseil d’Etat, June 16, 2010.
After Pierre received an MBA in 1986 from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris, France, the leading French business school, he moved to the United States and gained deep insight into the pharmaceutical industry, as he was promoted to marketing and financial control positions of increased responsibility with Pfizer, Inc., Sterling Winthrop and Sanofi-Aventis.
Pierre received his Juris Doctor Summa Cum Laude from the New York Law School, where he was an Executive Board Member and Notes Editor of the New York Law School Law Review.
Active in civic matters, Pierre also served as board member in a number of New York based not-for-profit entities, such as the Parents Association’s Co-President at the Lycée Francais de New York in 2002-2004, and currently serves as a member of the Judicial Relations Committee of the New York Law School Alumni Association.
Masurovsky, Marc
Marc Masurovsky co-founded the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) in 1997 and has served as its Director of Research. He has researched the question of assets looted during the Holocaust and World War II since 1980 and has worked as an expert historian on a class-action lawsuit for Jewish claimants seeking restitution of lost accounts and other liquid assets from Swiss banks.
As a consultant and historian for the Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, he has researched alleged Nazi war criminals living in the U.S., interviewed witnesses to crimes against humanity and studied post-war relations between former Nazi officials and Allied intelligence agencies.
Mr. Masurovsky earned his M.A. in Modern European History from American University in Washington, D.C. For his Master's thesis, he researched "Operation Safehaven: the Allied response to Nazi post-defeat planning, 1944-1948". He is the co-author with Fabrizio Calvi of Le Festin du Reich (Editions Fayard, 2006).
Korte, Willi
Willi Korte is an independent researcher, investigator, lawyer and writer specializing in the identification and restitution of works of art that were lost during World War II and the immediate post war period.
Korte, Willi
Willi Korte is an independent researcher, investigator, lawyer and writer specializing in the identification and restitution of works of art that were lost during World War II and the immediate post war period.
Dr. Korte studied history, law and political science at the Free University, Berlin, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, and Georgetown University, Washington D.C. He has a law degree and a Ph.D in history. Dr. Korte is coauthor of Quedlinburg-Texas und zurück: Schwarzhandel mit geraubter Kunst (1994), and the co-founder of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project.
Soltes, Ori Z.
Website: http://orizsoltes.com/
Ori Z. Soltes is the Goldman Professorial Lecturer in Theology and Fine Arts at Georgetown University and former Director and Curator of the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, where he curated over 80 exhibitions. He has taught and lectured in 23 other universities and museums throughout the country, on subjects ranging from the Arab-Israeli conflict to The Body in Ancient Art. Both before and since his years as a museum Director, he has guest-curated exhibitions across the United States and overseas.
Professor Soltes was educated in Classics and Philosophy at Haverford College, in Classics at Princeton University and The Johns Hopkins University and in Interdisciplinary Studies at Union University. He is the author of over 150 articles, exhibition catalogues, essays and books on a wide range of topics, and the writer and narrator of over 30 documentary videos. His most recent books are Our Sacred Signs: How Christian, Jewish and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source, (Westview Press, 2005), The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust, (Bartleby Press, 2006), Searching for Oneness: Mysticism in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Traditions (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008), Untangling the Tangled Web: Why the Middle East is a Mess (Bartleby Press, 2009).
Professor Soltes was educated in Classics and Philosophy at Haverford College, in Classics at Princeton University and The Johns Hopkins University and in Interdisciplinary Studies at Union University. He is the author of over 150 articles, exhibition catalogues, essays and books on a wide range of topics, and the writer and narrator of over 30 documentary videos. His most recent books are Our Sacred Signs: How Christian, Jewish and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source, (Westview Press, 2005), The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust, (Bartleby Press, 2006), Searching for Oneness: Mysticism in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Traditions (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008), Untangling the Tangled Web: Why the Middle East is a Mess (Bartleby Press, 2009).
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