What preceded
During the Second World War, the German occupiers deprived the Jews of their rights and robbed them of their possessions. In fact, this had already begun in Germany in 1933. Looted art was transported to Germany as spoils of war and occupies a special place within the total confiscation of property and murder of European Jews by the German occupiers.
An estimated 9,000 art objects (paintings, furniture, porcelain, carpets, etc.) found in Germany after the liberation by the Allies (‘recovered artworks’) were transferred to the Dutch state to be returned to their original owners.
After the war
After the Second World War, the severely decimated Jewish community in the Netherlands did not prioritise the systematic restitution of looted art. This changed in the late 1990s with the increased interest in looting and the restoration of rights to originally Jewish property and looted art. For the Netherlands, this resulted in the restitution of certain Jewish assets, the Maror funds, and internationally, the Washington Principles for looted art were established.
The Dutch State’s handling
Unfortunately, the Dutch State’s handling of looted art was careless. The approximately 15,000 claim forms submitted to the Dutch Art Property Foundation (SNK) after the war were used to trace works of art in Germany. A total of approximately [6,500] art objects were returned to the Netherlands, for which the Dutch State served as custodian. Until the 1950s, some of these were returned to their rightful owners and others (estimated at 2,000 items) were sold. What remained was given the name NK Collection. After the establishment of the Restitutions Committee (RC) in 2001, several hundred art objects were returned to their rightful owners. A total of 168 claims were processed.
Since then
Since 2007, no systematic research has been conducted into the provenance of Nazi-looted art and the original Jewish owners and their heirs. The Kohnstamm Committee, which evaluated the restitution policy, concluded that the lack of further research is contrary to international principles to which the Netherlands has committed itself and that provenance research should be resumed as soon as possible. The committee also recommended establishing a clear assessment framework for requests for the restitution of Nazi-looted art without weighing the interests of applicants and museums against each other. Meaningful redress for injustice must be the starting point for policy.