Wartime and post-war confiscations of East Asian objects held in the collections of the Celje Regional Museum

Mlinarič, Davor (author)

The article attempts to clarify, on the basis of laws adopted during and after the Second World War, how East Asian items became part of the museum collections held today by the Celje Regional Museum (Pokrajinski muzej Celje, PMC). The first part of the article focuses on confiscations of cultural and historical objects carried out by the Nazis in Lower Styria (Untersteiermark) between 1941 and 1945. The second part of the article covers the period immediately after the end of the Second World War. This was the period that saw the start of the formation of so-called national property, in other words the passage of ownership from private to state hands. As will be shown, a series of laws regulating the new authorities’ attitude towards property were passed in a relatively brief period. In the summer of 1945, the task of collecting cultural and historical objects was taken over by collection centres established for this purpose. One such collection centre was located in Celje. With the help of archival sources, we have attempted to shed light on its operations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: East Asian objects, confiscation, legislation, Celje Regional Museum
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 45-77
• Numbering: Vol. 13 (29), iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-178204
• UDC: 069.5(292.57)
• ISSN on article: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 225748227
• Publication date in RUL: 21.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Med- in povojne zaplembe vzhodnoazijskih predmetov, shranjenih v zbirkah Pokrajinskega muzeja Celje

Abstract

Prispevek poskuša na podlagi zakonov, sprejetih med vojno in po njej, pojasniti, kako so vzhodnoazijski predmeti sploh postali del muzejskih zbirk, ki jih danes hranijo v Pokrajinskem muzeju Celje. Prvi del prispevka se osredotoča na nacistične zaplembe kulturno-zgodovinskih predmetov na Spodnjem Štajerskem med letoma 1941 in 1945. Drugi del prispevka obravnava čas neposredno po koncu druge svetovne vojne, ko se je začela oblikovati t. i. narodna imovina, se pravi prehod lastništva iz zasebne v državno last. Kot bo prikazano, se je v kratkem času zvrstila množica zakonov, ki so urejali novi odnos do premoženja. Nalogo zbiranja kulturno-zgodovinskih predmetov so poleti 1945 prevzeli v ta namen ustanovljeni zbirni centri. Eden izmed takšnih zbirnih centrov je bil tudi v Celju. S pomočjo arhivskih virov smo poskusili osvetliti njegovo delovanje.

• Keywords: vzhodnoazijski predmeti, zaplembe, zakonodaja, Pokrajinski muzej Celje

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-3133-2021
• Name: Osiroteli predmeti: obravnava vzhodnoazijskih predmetov izven organiziranih zbirateljskih praks v slovenskem prostoru