Schriftenreihe der Forschungsstelle Provenienzforschung, Kunst- und Kulturgutschutzrecht

The present publication is the outcome of a research project undertaken at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, which aimed to complete a comprehensive, comparative legal stocktaking and analysis of international restitution practice as well as its underlying concepts of justice. To this end, case material from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland was reviewed and systematized. Rules for just and fair solutions were abstracted and formulated, reflecting the current state of practice, and thus utilizable as an aid to argumentation for the decisive bodies. Commentaries elucidate the rules. Country reports explain practice in the respective jurisdictions.

English edition

The present publication is the outcome of a research project undertaken at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, which aimed to complete a comprehensive, comparative legal stocktaking and analysis of international restitution practice as well as its underlying concepts of justice. To this end, case material from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland was reviewed and systematized. Rules for just and fair solutions were abstracted and formulated, reflecting the current state of practice, and thus utilizable as an aid to argumentation for the decisive bodies. Commentaries elucidate the rules. Country reports explain practice in the respective jurisdictions.

German edition

In 1998, 42 states signed the Washington Declaration, which calls for "just and equitable solutions" and identifies the need to create "domestic procedures to implement these guidelines". Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom have established such procedures. This study makes a comprehensive comparison of the five procedures from a functional comparative law perspective and develops 13 concrete components of an ideal procedure from their subsequent contextualisation and evaluation in light of the Washington Principles. These are to be understood as a contribution to public discourse, but also as an offer to practice for the creation of new commissions or the consolidation of those already in existence.

25 years after the publication of the “Joint Declaration”, in which the Federal Republic of Germany committed itself to the Washington Principles in 1998, this publication takes a look at today’s restitution practice for “Nazi looted art”. The basic texts as well as numerous decisions, especially the recommendations of the Advisory Commission, are analyzed and systemized to show developments to date. For the first time, the author compares these with their historical predecessors, the Allied Restitution Laws of 1947/49 and jurisprudence in that context. She develops concrete proposals from this comparison to improve the “guidelines”, and so makes a significant contribution to the current restitution debate.

Awardee of the prize of the Konrad Redeker Foundation 2024

In Switzerland, since the signing of the Washington Declaration in 1998, the lack of uniform standards has resulted in an essentially amorphous and contourless decision-making practice that has not yet been the subject of in-depth research. At the same time, the implementation of the Declaration has been the subject of intense debate for a number of years and now once again on the occasion of the creation of the Commission for Historic Cultural Heritage at the turn of 2024. Following a comprehensive survey and analysis of Swiss restitution practice since December 1998, the author is able to derive key decision-making parameters. She pays particular attention to the central concept of “fugitive property” in Switzerland.

The Washington Principles of 1998 call for "just and fair solutions" in dealing with "Nazi-looted art". The United Kingdom implemented this call in 2000 by establishing the Spoliation Advisory Panel (SAP), which has since provided a dispute-resolution mechanism to respond to claims made by entitled parties. This publication looks at the 22 recommendations that the panel has issued to date. The decisions are analyzed against the background of English legal tradition and practice as well as the historical role of the United Kingdom, systematized and presented in an abstract set of rules. Visualized in this way, the SAP's decision-making principles can be taken as the basis for further discussion and comparison with other countries’ restitution practices.

In 1998, France was one of the 44 signatory states of the Washington Declaration. This study examines to what extent the Republic has fulfilled its obligations under this declaration by evaluating the extensive case practice. In contrast to other states, France has several legal instruments and procedures for the restitution of Nazi looted art: in addition to laws from the immediate post-war period that are still in force today, further regulations were created after 1998 – most recently the Restitution Act in 2023. The publication presents these legal instruments in a systematic manner and analyzes them from a comparative law perspective. In doing so, it also provides important points of reference for the restitution debate in Germany and other countries.

Over the past 20 years, the Restitution Commission in the Netherlands has had a decisive influence on international restitution practice relating to Nazi-confiscated cultural property. In 2021, its procedural regulations and substantive legal basis for decision-making were reorganized extensively following the recommendations of the so-called Kohnstamm Commission. This publication is the first to systematize all previously published recommendations and binding decisions of the Netherlands Restitution Commission in the light of this new framework, classifying them according to a schematic evaluation. The abstract decision-making processes and emergent criteria are then examined to determine whether they meet the requirements of a just and fair solution in the spirit of the Washington Principles.

The Washington Principles of 1998 call for “just and fair solutions” in handling Nazi-looted art. At that same time, Austria was the only European state to pass its own art restitution law, based on which the Art Restitution Advisory Board has developed a comprehensive practice of recommendation. In Germany, too, the voices calling for a legal solution are growing louder. The practice of the Art Restitution Advisory Board is often seen as a role model there. But does it truly constitute the “just and fair solution” called for? For the first time, the author develops a comprehensive systematisation of this practice, subjects it to a critical analysis in light of the Washington Principles, and thus offers an indispensable comparative perspective for the German restitution debate.

• First exhaustive systematisation of the Art Restitution Advisory Board’s practice

• Clear guidelines for a “just and fair solution”

• Highly relevant for the German restitution debate

This volume reveals the potential effects of interdisciplinary cooperation between the areas of provenance research and art and cultural property law. The art historical articles deal with subjects such as cultural assets from colonial contexts, art looted by the Nazis, and the confiscation of cultural assets in the Soviet occupation zone and in the GDR, as well as questions of methodology. The legal articles address the fundamental questions of legal protection of art and cultural assets, for example the implications in terms of civil law of the new Art and Cultural Property Law.