Board of Trustees
Welcome to our Board of Trustees, here you will find the various individuals who work hard to make the Holocaust Art Restitution Project the most effective and impactful organization in the art restitution movement. Our trustees have backgrounds in various professions, and are some of the most passionate volunteers in the field of restitution. Meet our team here, and if you’d like to speak with a member feel free to reach out to HARP through our contact form.
Alex Harbach
A lex Harbach is a systems engineer at Dynetics as part of the Arbitrator team that works on unmanned aerial systems. He helped found the Institute for Cultural Restitution during his freshman year of college, and served as the chief financial officer for 5 years. During his time at ICR he assisted in daily advocacy for restitution and the overall operations of the organization. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma. Alex’s hobbies include golf, tennis, working on robotics, and video games. He lives in Alabama.
Willi Korte
W illi 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.
Marc Masurovsky
M arc Masurovsky co-founded the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) in September 1997 and served as its Director of Research. Since 1980 he has examined the general question of assets looted during the Nazi era. He worked as an expert historian on a class-action lawsuit filed by Jewish claimants against three leading Swiss banks, accusing them of having expropriated the property that their families had deposited in their safes and bank accounts. As a consultant and historian for the Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations, he investigated alleged Nazi war criminals living in the U.S. and 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).
Spencer Peoples
S pencer Peoples is a transactional lawyer. He helped found the Institute for Cultural Restitution during his freshman year of college, and served as its vice president for 5 years. During his time at ICR he assisted in daily advocacy for restitution and the overall operations of the organization. He holds a BS in Health and Exercise Science from the University of Oklahoma, and a JD from the University of Michigan. Spencer’s hobbies include weight lifting, gaming, and fostering animals. He lives in Ohio with his wife and dogs.
Ori Z. Soltes
O ri Z. Soltes is the Teaching Professor at the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. As co-founding Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project he has spent twenty years focused on the issue of Nazi-plundered art. 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 nearly 300 articles, exhibition catalogues, essays and books on a wide range of topics, and the writer and narrator of over 30 documentary videos. His recent books include 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, (Eshel Books, 2006), Searching for Oneness: Mysticism in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Traditions (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008), Untangling the Middle East (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017), and God and the Goalposts: A Brief History of Sports, Religion, Politics, War, and Art (Bartleby Press, 2020).
Lang Eric Sundby
L ang Eric Sundby is an aerospace professional focused in project and corporate management. He helped found the Institute for Cultural Restitution during his freshman year of college, and served as its president for 5 years. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Oklahoma, an MSc in Global Security from the University of Glasgow, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Space Force Association, and the Board of Advisors at the Sooner Flight Academy. Eric's hobbies include snow skiing, piloting, and traveling. He enjoys living in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and two dogs.
Cameron Valdez
C ameron Valdez is a software engineer at Walmart Inc. He specializes in and is passionate about technology, dev ops, game development, web design, and 3D art.
