We often think of works of art when we talk about Nazi looting and this has been the case in most cases. From the lavish Gurlitt collectionmore than 1,500 first-class works discovered in 2013, to individual claims, such as the Pissarro that a United States court has recently allowed the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid to be preserved (Lilly Neubauer was forced by the Nazis to sell it for sale in 1939 and was compensated by the German State in 1958).
But there are also quantities of money deposited in banks or real estate that are claimed for the same reason, such as the home of a family in Wandlitz, once expropriated from two Jewish sisters in 1932 and whose ownership has passed to the Jewish Claims Conference (JCC), an association of 23 Jewish organizations, such as legal successor of the two women murdered in Auschwitz. In 2015, the tenant family, the Lieskes, grandchildren of the home buyer, received the letter from the Federal Office of Open Property Affairs demanding the return.
These are very disparate cases that the competent courts have been resolving according to their own criteria, without much jurisprudence to stick to. For unify criteria and create a coherent body of judicial decisions, the German government has created a new arbitration court that unifies and simplifies the return of goods stolen during the Nazi regime.
The Arbitration Court for Art Looted by the Nazis will make the final decision if the parties challenge the return of the claimed works of art in the preliminary proceedings and will allow the “unilateral invocation”according to which it would be enough for a single party to request an audit. This differs from the procedures followed until now, where both the descendants of the previous owners and the current owners had to give their consent for an appointment of intermediaries. Many pieces were held before an appeals committee because the current owners refused to promote the procedure.
However, there is no consensus about the convenience of this new system. A group of lawyers and historians specializing in Nazi-looted art have written an open letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, criticizing the planned changes and arguing that “it is dishonest to abolish the Advisory Commission on Nazi-Looted Art in the end of the legislative period and adopt a new procedure that is worse for the victims».
The right to restitution
The commission to which the writing refers was created in 2003, in response to the refusal of many German institutions to cooperate with the 1999 Washington Agreement, which committed the country to return art looted by the Nazis. As I had no decision-making powerin 2021 it was proposed to reinforce it, to avoid situations such as that of a Picasso painting that the federal state of Bavaria has refused to return and that remains unresolved. But instead of that reinforcement, the government has completely abolished it and has replaced by the new Arbitration Court.
The signatories of the open letter are concerned that the framework for the new court has not been publicly discussed. They are also concerned that the victims who sold their art to the Nazis under pressure “in a legal sale and purchase operation at the time, will only have in the future a very limited right to restitution», states the letter. The signatories consider this point “a slap in the face to the victims and their descendants” and “catastrophic for Germany’s reputation.”
“We are facilitating restitution of the works of art looted by the Nazis, particularly by introducing unilateral access to arbitration”, has defended, however, Claudia Roth, Germany’s Minister of Culture about to leave the government, after the upcoming elections on February 23. “We are also creating more legal certainty and a more binding system», he insisted.
Roth is confident that the reform will allow Germany to better fulfill its historic responsibilities and its commitment to “fair and equitable solutions” to looted art claims under the principles of the Washington Agreement. Endorsed by 44 countries in 1998, these non-binding guidelines have facilitated recent claims processes in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands.
#Controversy #Germany #creation #court #return #art #looted #Nazis
