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France has authorized the restitution of 15 works of art, including paintings by Gustav Klimt and Marc Chagall, to the heirs of Jewish families pillaged by the Nazisa decision described as “historic”.
«It is a first step (…) Public collections still preserve looted works of art and books that should never have been there,” said the French Minister of Culture,
Roselyne Bachelotwhile the examination on the origin of the funds is accelerated.
The Senate must give its approval to this bill, which the French National Assembly (lower house) already approved unanimously on January 25, under the watchful eye of the families and their representatives in the stands.
For the first time in 70 years, “a government takes measures to allow the restitution of works of public collections looted during World War II or problematically acquired during the Occupation, due to the antisemitic persecutionBachelot stressed.
The law will have “an important scope from the point of view of recognition and reparation” of the Holocaust, pointed out the Senate rapporteur, Béatrice Gosselin, for whom the plundering is part “of the policy of annihilation of the Jews of Europe”. Without being the instigator, the Vichy regime He also actively collaborated in these crimes, “added the senator, regarding the regime collaborator with the Nazis that Marshal Philippe Pétain established in part of the French territory and in its colonies.
Among the 15 works affected by the bill is
‘Rose bushes under the trees’, by Gustav Klimtpreserved in the
Orsay’s Museum and the only work of the Austrian painter in the collections of France. This painting was acquired by the French State from a seller in 1980. However, investigations established that the painting belonged to the Austrian Eleonore Stiasny, who was forced to sell it in Vienna in 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria, before being deported and murdered.
A painting by the French painter Utrillotwelve other works, mostly drawings, preserved in the Musée du Louvre, by Orsay and others, as well as a canvas by Chagall, ‘The Father’, kept at the Center Pompidou, are also included in the restitution law. This last work belonged to David Cender, a Polish musician and luthier who moved to France in 1958. According to the Compensation Commission for Victims of Looting (CIVS), the beneficiaries were identified in 13 of the 15 works.
critics
France has long been criticized for lagging behind its European neighbors on reparations. The Ministry of Culture created two years ago a mission of investigation and restitution of looted property between 1933 and 1945.
Some 100,000 works of art were seized in France during the WWII (1939-1945), according to the Ministry of Culture, of which 60,000 were found in Germany and were repatriated. Of these, 45,000 were quickly returned to their owners. Some 2,200 went to the National Recovery Museums and can be restored with a simple administrative decision. The rest, some 13,000, were sold by the State in the early 1950s, so that many looted works ended up on the market.
Silence was imposed on the question of restitution until the 1990s with the fall of the Soviet bloc and the opening of new archives. In 1995, President Jacques Chirac recognized the responsibility of France in the deportation of French Jews. A ‘framework law’ might facilitate future restitutions in France without needing authorization from the legislature on a case-by-case basis, as is currently the case.
The extermination of the jews committed by the Nazis in Europe between 1939 and 1945 left six million dead. Gypsies, homosexuals or political dissidents were also deported to concentration and extermination camps.
