Looted art, the art that never returned to its owner

Our foundation

The Claimants for Claimants Foundation, or “C4C”, aims to facilitate the restitution of art to claimants in an effective manner.

The administrative and legal barriers often prove too high for claimants. The foundation wants to offer an alternative form of support.

The C4C Foundation has the necessary expertise in genealogical and provenance research, as well as support for relevant legal aspects, and has extensive experience in these areas.

C4C!

Is important in today’s society, where so much is changing. There are multi-ethnic zebra crossings, gender-neutral traffic lights and toilets, we hold the Gay Pride parade in Amsterdam, Paradiso Amsterdam is known for its multicultural music from all walks of life, believe it or not, it allows different and LinkedIn pronouns without sexual pre-selection. Intersectionality is recognised with the scope of a wide-angle lens. In other words: Dutch people, wake up, look at the past and let that be an example for the present.

Joined forces

During the Second World War, Jews were stripped of their possessions on a large scale. After the war, the Allies transferred approximately 9,000 art objects to the Dutch state for restitution to their rightful owners.

By the 1950s, some of these had actually reached their rightful owners, and approximately 2,000 objects were sold by the state. The remainder were labelled “NK Collection”, where NK stands for “Nederlands Kunstbezit” (Dutch Art Property).

Initiatives

This reformed collective consciousness calls for reformed initiatives. The role of the notarial profession in the expropriation of Jewish property has been exposed, municipalities are investigating their own role in this, and museums are restituting colonial objects that were involuntarily surrendered. We have already achieved that the golden carriage will no longer be able to parade through the streets of The Hague in 2025. Apologies are being offered for the history of slavery and military action in the former Dutch East Indies.

Reconciliation… insofar as “becoming friends again” is still part of it, of course. In collaboration with three colleagues, I want to bring a breath of fresh air to Dutch boardrooms and, above all, add weight to the issue of looted art, because art belongs to its owner and their family and should be returned to them.

Kohnstamm

After the Restitution Committee (RC) was established in 2001, several hundred objects were returned to their rightful owners. A total of 168 claims have been processed. However, since 2007, there has been a lull, until the Kohnstamm Committee – which evaluated the restitution policy in the Netherlands – concluded that the lack of further investigation is contrary to international principles to which the Netherlands has committed itself.

This led to the recommendation in 2020 to establish a clear assessment framework for requests for the restitution of Nazi-looted art, with due regard for the interests of the applicants.

Fair and just

On 25 June 2021, former Minister of Education, Culture and Science Van Engelshoven decided to adopt the recommendations of the Kohnstamm Committee in their entirety and to make any remaining items – after extensive provenance research and the settlement of new restitution requests – available to the Jewish community.

Stichting Claimants for Claimants

more than 75 years later, a solution is opportune …

This foundation aims to facilitate restitution to the claimants (rightful owners and heirs of the rightful owners) in an effective manner. The administrative and legal barriers often prove too high for the average claimant. The foundation also wants to offer an alternative to purely commercial support.

The C4C Foundation has the necessary expertise in genealogical and provenance research, as well as support for relevant legal aspects, and has extensive experience in these areas.