Please note: This course has been moved from Wednesday morning to Tuesday morning. And the venue has also been changed. All information below is correct.

This course examines the greatest theft of art and cultural valuables in history and its continuing impact today. From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis confiscated more than half a million objects of art. Although the western Allies refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of these confiscations, many heirs of Nazi victims are still trying to recover their ancestors’ art. Using films, Power Point presentations and class discussions, the class begins by exploring the history of looting art during times of conflict, from the Romans through Napoleon. Then we focus on Hitler’s views on art, the development of the Nazi aesthetic, and confiscations from German museums and private collections in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. We’ll consider the role of the “Monuments Men” after the Allied invasion of Europe, the discovery of Nazi caches of art, and initial attempts to restitute such art. Finally, we examine legal restitution efforts after the war, more recently, and currently. Our instructor taught art law at Harvard Law School until his retirement in 2008, taught a seminar on art law at the University of Texas Law School upon his subsequent move to Austin, and taught several summer art law seminars in Freiberg, Germany. Limit 30.

Terry Martin
10:00—Noon Tuesday, Starts Feb. 17
Triumphant Love Lutheran Church, Upper Room
9508 Great Hills Trail (78759)

Please note: Class schedule has been changed. No class on March 25. Last class is April 1. Tiny England went to sea and built the greatest empire in history. At its height, the British Empire had a quarter of the earth’s land mass and a quarter of the population. England didn’t set out to build an empire but accumulated it under a variety of means.

From isolation to the world’s first superpower and the world’s first industrial nation, England influenced and shaped world events. Many legacies remain today from the accumulation of British power and the relatively orderly dismantling of that vast empire. This course outlines significant events of the last 400 years that together answer how tiny England achieved its empire and why our modern world is the way it is:

• Coming out of Isolation—how England found its identity as a maritime trading nation and competed with larger powers

• Trade is the path to riches—North America and India

• Industrial/agricultural revolutions fuel growth—how Britain achieved economic and technical leadership

• Undisputed world power—the empire fully formed under Queen Victoria

• Scramble for Africa—opening the Dark Continent to European domination

• Fighting tyranny to exhaustion—two world wars are tough on a far-flung empire—the transition back to British Isles

Our ever-popular master instructor, retired Naval officer and business executive, brings his love of world exploration and history to bear on our nation’s story. Note: No class on March 25; course extends one week. 6 Classes. Limit 50.

Todd Clayton
10:00—Noon Wednesday, Starts Feb. 18
The Village at The Triangle  
4517 Triangle Avenue (78751)