Carla Shapreau is a Senior Fellow in the Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Her research as Project Director of the Lost Music Project investigates the Nazi-era looting of musical material culture in Europe and its evolving ramifications.
Shapreau is also the Curator of the Ansley K. Salz Stringed Instrument Collection in the Department of Music, with a background in violin making, restoration, and non-profit service. She is also a Continuing Lecturer in the School of Law at U.C. Berkeley, where she has taught a course on art and cultural property/heritage law since 2010, informed by her legal practice as an intellectual property and art law attorney.
A recipient of a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in connection with her research on the Lost Music Project, Shapreau has written and lectured broadly on the topic of cultural property.
Curriclum Vitae
Appointments/Affiliations
Senior Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, Institute of European Studies (2014-present). Research Associate (2011-2013). Visiting Scholar (2007-2010).
Continuing Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (2023-present). Lecturer (2010-2023).
Curator, Ansley K. Salz Collection of Stringed Instruments, Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley (2015-present).
Co-opted Board Member and Co-Chair of the Provenance Working Group, International Council of Museums, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music, 2024-2025
Faculty Affiliate, Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (2026)
Awards/Grants
2026, Doctor of Fine Arts (honoris causa), Trustees of The California State University and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt
2018, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Grant, European History: “Orpheus Lost: The Nazi-Era Plunder of Music in Europe”
2017, France-Berkeley Fund grant: “The Economic, Social and Political World of Violins in the Pre-War and World War II Eras: Bridging the Archival Gap between the Musée de la Musique and the Smithsonian Institution Collections," with co-grantees Christine Laloue and Jean-Paul Échard.
2015, Claude V. Palisca Award, American Musicological Society for The Ferrell-Vogüé Machaut Manuscript, with co-authors Lawrence Earp and Domenic Leo
2011, Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation grant: "Austria: Musical Expropriations During the Nazi Era and 21st Century Ramifications"
2011, France-Berkeley Fund grant: "The Loss of French Musical Property During World War II, Post-War Repatriations, Restitutions, and 21st Century Ramifications," with co-grantee Florence Getreau
2010, European Union Center of Excellence grant for development of course module, Cultural Policy, Law, and Practice in the European Union
Selected Publications
Books/Chapters
“Provenance and Instruments of the Violin Family,” in European, British, and American Musical Instrument Collectors, 1850–1940, ed. Christina Linsenmeyer. Series: The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700–1950, Routledge, 2026
"Documenting the Violin Trade in Paris: The Archives of Albert Caressa and Émile Français, 1930-1945," by Carla Shapreau, Christine Laloue, and Jean-Philippe Échard in Collecting & Provenance: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach, eds., Jane Milosch and Nick Pearce, Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative, Smithsonian Institution and University of Glasgow in association with Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2019
“Bells in the Cultural Soundscape: Nazi-Era Plunder, Repatriation, and Campanology,” in The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation, Oxford University Press, 2018/2019
“The Plunder and Restitution of Vg: The Nazi Era and its Aftermath, 1940–9,” The Ferrell-Vogüé Machaut Manuscript, Introductory Study, by Lawrence Earp with Domenic Leo and Carla Shapreau, Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music Publications, Oxford University, 2014 (American Musicological Society Claude V. Palisca Award, 2015)
"Art, Internet, and U.S. Copyright Law," in Dear Images: Art, Copyright & Culture, Ridinghouse and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2002
Violin Fraud, Deception, Forgery, and Lawsuits in England and America, by Brian W. Harvey and Carla J. Shapreau, Oxford University Press, 1997
Articles/Reports
“The Stolen 1709 Mendelssohn Stradivari Violin Emerges — Preliminary Report on the 1709 Mendelssohn Stradivari Violin,” the Lost Music Project: Publications & Reports, June 24, 2025
“Musical Instruments, Provenance Evidence and Public Access,” by Carla Shapreau and Carol Lynnn Ward-Bamford, Conference on Provenance Research on Musical Instruments, Historisches Museum Basel, Switzerland, October 17-18, 2024
"Provenance and the Curatorial Narrative – Wanda Landowska’s Pleyel Harpsichord in the Library of Congress," by Carla Shapreau and Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music (CIMCIM) Bulletin, December 2022
"The Nazi-Era Confiscation of Wanda Landowska’s Musical Collection and its Aftermath," Polin, Studies in Polish Jewry, Vol. 32: Jews in Polish Musical Life,The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Liverpool University Press, 2020
“German Panel Rules That a Rare Violin Was Looted by Nazis,” New York Times, December 9, 2016
“The Purloined Stradivari,” IFAR Journal, Volume 16, No. 3, 2015
“Lost and Found: Stolen Instruments,” The Cozio Carteggio, Cozio Archive, September 2015
“The Austrian Copyright Society and Blacklisting During the Nazi Era,” Music Restored, the Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers at the Colburn School (previously the OREL Foundation) 2014
“The Vienna Archives: Musical Expropriations During the Nazi Era and 21st Century Ramifications,” Report for the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, 2014
“The Loss of French Musical Property During World War II, Post-War Repatriations, Restitutions, and 21 st Century Ramifications,” Report for the France Berkeley Fund, 2013.
“A Violin Once Owned by Goebbels Keeps Its Secrets,” New York Times, September 23, 2012
"The Stolen Instruments of the Third Reich," The Strad, Vol. 120, No. 1436, December 2009
“Musical Cultural Property: The Nazi Era and Post-War Provenance Challenges,” Looted Art Working Group, European Union Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, Prague, June 26-30, 2009
"Nazi-Era Restitution Lawsuits – New Developments in the California Courts,"IFAR Journal, Vol.10, No. 2, 2008
"Protecting the Cultural Heritage in War and Peace," Santa Clara Journal of International International Law, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2007
"Lost and Found. And Lost Again?" Los Angeles Times, West Magazine, February 12, 2006
"Herbert Axelrod Indicted for Tax Conspiracy,"The Strad, July 2004
"Extension of Express Abandonment Standard for Sovereign Shipwrecks in Sea Hunt, Inc. et al., Raises Troubling Issues Regarding Protection of Underwater Cultural Property," International Journal of Cultural Property, Oxford University Press, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2001
"The Segelman Transatlantic Dealing Dispute: A Cautionary Tale for Sellers,"Strings, No. 90, December 2000
"Second Circuit Holds that False Statements Contained in Customs Forms Warrant Forfeiture of Ancient Gold Phiale -- Hotly Contested Foreign Patrimony Issue Not Reached by the Court: United States v. An Antique Platter of Gold,"International Journal of Cultural Property, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 9, No.1, 2000
"The Hazards of Secret Commissions and the Duty to Disclose," American String Teacher, Vol. 49, No. 3, 1999
"Droit de Suite in the U.S.," The Art Newspaper, Vol. IX, No. 80, April 1998
"Did He or Didn’t He? The Gibson Strad, New Evidence Regarding its 1936 Disappearance,"The Strad, January 1998
"Federal Jurisdiction Over U.S. Shipwrecks," Art Antiquity and Law, Institute of Art and Law, Vol.3, No. 3, 1998
"California Adopts an ‘Actual’ Discovery Accrual Rule for Claims to Recover Stolen Art," International Journal of Cultural Property, ,Vol. 7, No. 1, 1998
"Treasure Salvors Win a Victory in the Ninth Circuit," Art, Antiquity and Law, Institute of Art and Law, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 1997
"Title Bout, The Discovery-Accrual Rule," San Francisco Daily Journal, February 29, 1996
"Understanding Basic Copyright Law," Practicing Law Institute, July, 1996
"Strings Attached -- Violin Fraud and Other Deceptions," Michigan Law Review, Vol. 92, No. 6, May 1994
Selected Talks
“The Nazi-Era Theft of the 1709 Mendelssohn Stradivari – A Case Study on Looted Cultural Property, Provenance, and the Law,” Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, March 31, 2026
“Musical Instruments, Provenance Evidence and Public Access,” Conference on Provenance Research on Musical Instruments, Historisches Museum Basel, Switzerland, October 17-18, 2024
“Beyond Paintings: Provenance Research on Musical Instruments and Manuscripts,” Fundamental of Nazi-era Art Provenance Research, Center for Art Collection Ethics, University of Denver, June 24-28, 2024
“Nazi-Confiscated Art and Its Recovery,” Panel presentation, Art, Law, and Finance Project, Berkeley Center for Law and Business, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, February 8, 2024
Keynote, International Council of Museums, International Committee of Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music Annual Conference, "Provenance Due Diligence Policy and Practice — Challenges for Musical Instrument and Music Collections," the Netherlands, August 31, 2023
“Legal Developments Related to Provenance and Due Diligence,” Berkeley Art, Finance, and Law Symposium, S.F. Museum of Modern Art, June 8, 2023
“Restitution, Restoration and Repertoire: New Findings in the Wanda Landowska and Denise Restout Papers at the Library of Congress, Coolidge Auditorium, May 25, 2022, Washington, D.C.
Keynote, Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris, Symposium: “The spoliation of musical instruments in Europe. 1933-1945,” April 7-9, 2022, Paris
"Nazi-Era Looted Musical Property – The Mechanics of Loss,” Looted Assets – Flight Assets — International Conference on Provenance Research in the Field of String Instruments and the Role of Switzerland in the Instrument Trade Since the 1930s. An initiative of the Swiss School of Violin Making Brienz in collaboration with the Hochschule der Künste Bern and the Institute of Musicology at the University of Bern, April 4-5, 2022, Brienz
“Provenance Research -- Challenges and Insights: A Case Study on the Violin Trade in Paris, 1930-1945,” Conference: Looted Music - Sources and Research Methods, Center for History at Sciences Po, Paris, January 31, 2020.
“The Nazi Era Plunder of Material Culture,” Colburn School of Music, Los Angeles, February 19, 2018
“The Sound of Silence: Musical Instrument Theft and Fraud,” Art and Cultural Heritage Crime Symposium, New York University, November, 2016
“Contextualizing Cultural Property – Interpretation and Perception of Nazi-era Looted or Blacklisted Works,” Symposium: How Should We Perform the Troubled Past?, Colburn School of Music, Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, October, 2016
Panel Chair, Symposium: Beyond Destruction: Archaeology & Cultural Heritage in the Middle East and North Africa, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2016
“Researching the Provenance of Lavater and Lessing Visit Moses Mendelssohn (1856), by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim,” The Mendelssohn Project, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, 2016
“Antonio Stradivari and the Cremonese Mystique -- Fraud, Fakes, and Heists,” exhibition opening, Stradivarius: Origins and Legacy of the Greatest Violin Maker, Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, 2016
“Culture in the Crosshairs at Monte Cassino: Italy, World War II and its Aftermath,” San Francisco Opera sponsored panel -- “Flames in the Ice: A Conversation about historical memory and the moral challenges posed by Two Women,” Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco, 2015
“Bells in the Cultural Soundscape: The WWII Pillage of Europe's Bells and Post-war Reconstruction,” Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2015
“The Offenbach Archival Depot, Looted Books and the Koppel S. Pinson Collection,” Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, 2014
“Mastery of the Past,” Symposium: The Vienna Philharmonic 100 Years After the Outbreak of the First World War, Cal Performances, University of California, Berkeley, 2014
“Provenance and Evolving Due Diligence Standards,” Symposium: Current Questions in Authenticity, University of California, Berkeley, 2012
“When the Music Stopped: The Spoliation of Europe's Musical Property, 1933-1945, and 21st Century Concerns,” Joseph and Eda Pell Endowed Lecture, University of California, Berkeley, 2011
“From Stolen Art to Incunabula -- The Clash Between Private Property Rights, National Patrimony, and the Cultural Heritage of All Mankind,” Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2011
“The Landowska Musical Instrument Collection: Plunder, Discovery, and Restitution – The Ardelia Hall Collection, United States National Archives,” Die Dame mit dem Cembalo – Wanda Landowska und die Alte Musik, Das Staatliche Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 2009, Berlin
Professional Associations and Board Member Service
Member, International Council of Museums, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music. Co-opted Board Member and Co-Chair Provenance Working Group, 2024-2025
Member, American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers (Board of Governors, 2010-2014)
Member, Violin Society of America, (Board of Directors 2010-2014)
Member, American Musical Instrument Society
Education
Juris Doctor, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, 1988
Bachelor of Arts, Humboldt State University, magna cum laude, 1983
Additional Professional Experience
Attorney (1988-present)
2003 – present: Intellectual property, art and cultural property law
1997- 2003: Of Counsel, Gnazzo Thill, LLP (fka Giancarlo & Gnazzo,PC), intellectual property, art and cultural property law
1988-1996: Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May, Partner (1996), Associate (1988-1995) -- Freedom of Information Act, intellectual property, art and cultural property law
Fall, 1994: Pro bono Deputy District Attorney, District Attorney’s Office, Alameda County
Summer 1987: Judicial Extern, United States District Court, San Francisco, the Honorable Chief Judge Robert F. Peckham
Admitted: Supreme Court of the State of California, 1988; U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, 1988; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1989; U.S. District Court, District of Arizona, 1990; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, 1991; U.S. District Court, Central District of California, 1995; U.S. District Court, Southern District of California 1995
Violin Maker (1972-present)
1980-2000, conservation, Ansley K. Salz Collection of Stringed Instruments, University of California, Berkeley
1978-1981, repair/restoration, Roland Feller Violin Makers, San Francisco, California
1975-1978, repair/restoration, Cremona Musical Instruments, San Francisco, California
1974, apprenticeship, Donald Warnock, lute and viola da gamba maker
1971, apprenticeship, Victor Gardener, violin maker
Awards
Certificate of Merit, International Exhibition and Competition,Violin Society of America, Minnesota, 1988
Certificate of Merit, International Exhibition and Competition,Violin Society of America, Oregon, 1986
Finalist, Exhibition and Competition, American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, Lincoln Center, New York, 1985
Certificate of Merit, International Exhibition and Competition, Violin Society of America, California, 1978
Group Exhibitions
Library of Congress, From Jefferson to Jazz , American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers Exhibition, Players Meet Makers Exhibition, 2006
Pittsburgh, American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, Players Meet Makers Exhibition, 2005
New York, American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, Players Meet Makers Exhibition, 1998
Exhibition, Bay Area Violin and Bow Makers, Fort Mason, San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, San Francisco, California,1989
Exhibition, 5th Triennale Internazionale Degli Strumenti ad Arco, Cremona, Italy, 1988
Exhibition, 4th Triennale Internationale Degli Strumenti ad Arco, Cremona, Italy, 1985
International Exhibition, Violin Society of America, Canada, 1984
International Exhibition, Violin Society of America, New York, 1980
International Exhibition, International Viola Congress, Utah, 1979
Exhibition, Early Musical Instruments , University of California, Berkeley, 1975
