Nazi Looted Art

Catherine Hickley of Bloomberg has an interesting story on Nazi looted art and the rather complicated process for the rightful owners. About 50 nations voluntarily signed onto the Washington Principles, a non binding effort to return property to the rightful owners stolen and looted by the Nazi's. The current track record and rightful owners feel many governments have not lived up to the agreement, be it voluntary or not. According to the article the Nazi's plundered nearly 650,000 works of art. The Art Loss Register lists only 70,000 of the items or a little over 10%. The conference is working on new and more equitable guidelines. Keep in mind as appraisers ownership rights and encumbrances have an impact on valuation.

Hickley states Under the Washington principles, 44 governments agreed to identify stolen art in museums’ collections, publicize the results and encourage pre-war owners and their heirs to make claims. They also promised to strive for “a just and fair solution” with the victims.

Heuberger said the Claims Conference has ranked countries according to how much they have done to implement the Washington principles. He plans to announce the findings in Prague.

“What we regret is that there has been no monitoring group to track progress,” Heuberger said. “We would like to have a commission or institute on an international level, outside national states, that discusses disputed cases.”

Russia, Hungary, France, Italy, Spain and some Scandinavian countries are among those which have failed to make good on commitments, Webber said.

Hickley continues Rowland said he favors the creation of a restitution panel in the U.S., where museums are mostly private and don’t feel bound by the Washington principles. Cases end up in court and museums often use laches and statutes of limitations to defeat heirs’ claims on technical grounds, he said.

“In the U.S., lawyers have been put in charge,” said Marc Masurovsky, a historian who has advised successive U.S. governments on Holocaust-era assets. “There has been a massive failure on the side of public policy.”

The Prague event is an opportunity to “refocus attention and reinforce the urgency of the situation,” Webber said.

To read the full Bloomberg report, click HERE.