“Law and Art” was the overall theme for this year’s Anwaltstag, held in München last week. One of the sessions was devoted to “Restitution in the Absence of Claims – Finding Fair Solutions Beyond the Law” (Restitution ohne Anspruch – gerechte Lösungen jenseits des Rechts). Here’s a link to a short video summarizing the discussion. While solutions beyond the law may be difficult to find, the prospects for law-based restitution claims appear to have improved recently, both legally and factually.
Regarding the legal position, I have reported the judgment of the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) earlier this year, ruling in favour of Nazi victims on time-bar issues.
And now, a new tools assisting fact-finding and tracing lost works of art has been made available: Deutsches Historisches Museum this week announced the publication of a data base of Hermann Göring‘s collection – “collected” often by disappropriation and other illegal means. Regina Mönch’s article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sets out the back-ground of the Göring collection.
The data base comprises 4,263 objects and complements the existing data bases on “Sonderauftrag Linz” and on Central Collecting Point Munich.