New German tribunal launched for Nazi-looted art cases

Courier service staff prepare to ship the 16th century Italian painting "Madonna with Child," attributed to Alessandro Turchi, which was looted from a private Polish collection by Nazi Germany during World War II, at the Polish Embassy in Tokyo on Thursday, June 1, 2023.

A new German tribunal started work on Monday on resolving disputes over cultural property seized by the Nazis, a move the government hopes will streamline the process for outstanding claims.

The Arbitration Panel for Stolen Goods from the Nazi Era will issue binding decisions and “better address the cases still open today”, a government statement said.

The new body will replace an advisory commission that previously handled such disputes, but unlike that commission its decisions will be binding.

It will also enable claimants to launch a case on their own, as opposed to the previous system where both the claimant and the current holder of the disputed property had to agree to arbitration.

Between Adolf Hitler’s rise to power on January 30, 1933, and Germany’s capitulation on May 8, 1945, hundreds of thousands of cultural goods were stolen, mostly from Jewish owners.

At the end of 1998, after decades of inertia, Germany and 43 other states committed to locating and returning artworks stolen by the Nazis.

However, 80 years after the fall of the Third Reich, not all looted assets have been returned to the victims’ descendants.

The new body shows that Germany is “assuming its historical responsibility,” said Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer.

When the previous government announced plans for the new tribunal in January, a group of lawyers and victims’ descendants expressed concerns that it might ultimately disadvantage them.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Jewish Claims Conference, an organization seeking compensation for Holocaust survivors, support the new system and were involved in its conception.