Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T20:18:25.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ardelia Hall: From Museum of Fine Arts to Monuments Woman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2014

Victoria Reed
Victoria Reed*
Affiliation:
Sadler Curator for Provenance, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Ardelia Ripley Hall (1899–1979) served from 1946 until 1962 as the Fine Arts and Monuments Adviser to the U.S. Department of State. In this role she oversaw the recovery and restitution of movable cultural property that had been displaced during the Second World War. In spite of her vast accomplishments, almost nothing has been written on Ardelia Hall, and little is known about her life. She began her career at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, but personal circumstances led to her resignation in 1941. During the war, she was employed by the Office of Strategic Services. The expertise she established as an art historian working with the Roberts Commission at this time led to her appointment at the State Department in 1946. This essay traces for the first time Hall’s remarkable journey from curatorial researcher to adviser on international art restitution.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 79 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alford, Kenneth D. Allied Looting During World War II: Thefts of Art, Manuscripts, Stamps and Jewelry in Europe. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011.Google Scholar
Bradsher, Greg. Holocaust-Era Assets: A Finding Aid to the Records at the National Archives at College Park. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1999.Google Scholar
Collins, Gail. America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007.Google Scholar
“Cultural Articles Returned.” Information Bulletin (Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, Office of Public Affairs, Information Division), July 1952: 18.Google Scholar
“Department Exhibits Photographs of Korean Monuments and Temples.” Department of State Bulletin 41 (6 October 1959): 609.Google Scholar
Dunham, Dows. Recollections of an Egyptologist. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1972.Google Scholar
Edsel, Robert M. Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe’s Greatest Art—America and Her Allies Recovered It. Dallas: Laurel, 2006.Google Scholar
Edsel, Robert M., and Witter, Bret. The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. New York: Center Street, 2009.Google Scholar
“Exhibition of Photographs of Korean National Treasures.” Department of State Bulletin 33 (5 December 1955): 917.Google Scholar
Hall, Ardelia R. “International Protection of Works of Art and Historic Monuments.” Documents and State Papers 1 , no. 15 (June 1949): 821.Google Scholar
Hall, Ardelia R. “The Recovery of Cultural Objects Dispersed During World War II.” Department of State Bulletin 25 (27 August 1951): 337–44.Google Scholar
Hall, Ardelia R. “U.S. Program for Return of Historic Objects to Countries of Origin, 1944–1954.” Department of State Bulletin 31 (4 October 1954): 493.Google Scholar
Kurtz, Michael J. America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe’s Cultural Treasures. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Maurer, Ely. “The Role of the State Department Regarding National and Private Claims for the Restitution of Stolen Cultural Property.” In Spoils of War, edited by Simpson, Elizabeth, 142–44. New York: Abrams, 1997.Google Scholar
Popa, Opritsa D. “Ardelia.” Chapter 12 in Bibliophiles and Bibliothieves: The Search for the Hildebrandslied and the Willehalm Codex. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothfeld, Anne. “Evelyn Tucker: An Enforcer of Restitution Policy in U. S. Occupied Austria.” In Kunst sammeln, Kunst handeln. Beiträge des Internationalen Symoposiums in Wien, edited by Blimlinger, Eva and Mayer, Monika, 279–87. Vienna: Böhlau, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyth, Craig Hugh. Repatriation of Art from the Collecting Point in Munich after World War II Maarssen: Gary Schwartz, 1988.Google Scholar
Society of Women Geographers Bulletin, August 1946.Google Scholar
Standen, Edith A. “Introduction.” In Spoils of War, edited by Simpson, Elizabeth, 122–23. New York: 1997.Google Scholar
Sutterlin, James S. “Diplomatic Cooperation Recovers Historic German Manuscript.” Department of State Bulletin 68 (9 April 1973): 432–33.Google Scholar