A partial view of The Colorful Life by Wassily Kandinsky. The advisory commission on looted art believes the work, currently on display at the Bavarian state bank, should be returned to the descendants of its previous Jewish owner. Photo: Ermell via Wikimedia Commons
The German independent advisory commission on Nazi-confiscated cultural property is calling for the implementation of a new restitution law in Germany that would give individuals more power to reclaim belongings seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property.
The commission, which has 10 members — two of whom are Jewish — was created in 2003 by the German federal government, states, and municipal associations to develop recommendations for solving cases related to Nazi-looted art in accordance with the Washington Conference Principles. The commission said in a memorandum on Monday that since its establishment 20 years ago, it has so far issued only 23 recommendations.
“The low number of recommendations made by the commission is due to the corresponding low number of cases brought before the advisory commission,” the panel explained, adding that it faces “an incalculable number of unresolved claims.” The Lost Art Database, which publishes international searches and findings of Nazi-looted art, lists around “40,000 searches and another 35,000 findings of confiscated cultural property,” according to the memo.
The commission said that the current “unsatisfactory” legal framework in Germany makes restitution difficult for descendants of those who faced Nazi persecution and is “in need of an urgent overhaul.”
“Until today, victims and their descendants can only bring a case before the commission if cultural institutions in possession of the art agree to it,” the commission explained, before calling that setup “unreasonable and inappropriate” for claimants. “The commission can only take action if both sides, i.e. both the descendants of the persecuted and the museums or other cultural heritage institutions, agree to the appeal by the claimant.”
The commission said victims of Nazi persecution should have the opportunity to initiate proceedings before the commission, arguing the latter should also be able to do more than just make recommendations.
“The lack of a legal basis for an institution that is supposed to decide on the restitution of cultural assets lost as a result of Nazi persecution in the country of the perpetrators is inappropriate and insufficient,” it said on Monday.
The committee mentioned as an example the case of Portrait of Madame Soler (1903) by Pablo Picasso, which the Bavarian State Painting Collections and the state of Bavaria have refused to submit to the commission because it claims the painting was not sold as a result of Nazi persecution.
But “the job of deciding whether this work should be viewed as looted is the commission’s, and not the affected institution,” the panel said. A restitution law would guarantee that anyone, including private institutions or individuals, who possesses Nazi-looted art would be required to participate in the restitution process, the memo stated.
The commission wants its recommendations to be legally binding and not just advisory. It noted that while all its recommendations have so far been implemented, “in some cases they faced heavy resistance and were only implemented because of public and media pressure.”
Overall, the commission said Germany needs to put more effort into helping to return cultural property stolen by the Nazis to their original owners.
“Criticism both in Germany and abroad continues, claiming that the Federal Republic of Germany is not sufficiently capable and not truly willing to adequately and comprehensively redress the Nazi injustice concerning cultural property,” the panel explained, adding that Germany “fails to live up to this political and moral responsibility because the existing regulations, especially in disputed cases, are inadequate.”
by Shiryn Ghermezian
