Reinforcement of Franco–German cooperation on Nazi-confiscated property

Yes­ter­day evening, a Fran­co–Ger­man co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment in the field of prove­nance re­search was signed at the French em­bassy in Berlin in the pres­ence of the am­bas­sador Anne-Marie De­scôtes. The aim is to iden­ti­fy Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed prop­er­ty and pro­mote fair and just so­lu­tions.

Part­ners to the co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment are the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion (Foun­da­tion), the Com­mis­sion pour l‘in­dem­ni­sa­tion des vic­times de spo­li­a­tions in­ter­v­enues du fait des lég­is­la­tions an­ti­sémites en vigueur pen­dant l‘Oc­cu­pa­tion (Com­mis­sion for the Com­pen­sa­tion of Vic­tims of Spo­li­a­tion Re­sult­ing from the An­ti-Semitic Leg­is­la­tion in Force dur­ing the Oc­cu­pa­tion, CIVS) and the Mis­sion de recherche et de resti­tu­tion des bi­ens cul­turels spoliés en­tre 1933 et 1945 du min­istère de la Cul­ture (Min­istry of Cul­ture’s Mis­sion for Re­search and Resti­tu­tion of Cul­tur­al Prop­er­ty Dis­pos­sessed be­tween 1933 and 1945, M2RS).

The co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment en­vis­ages a close and trust­ing re­la­tion­ship in the search for/in­ves­ti­ga­tion of Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed prop­er­ty, the doc­u­men­ta­tion pro­cess, and pub­lic re­la­tions ac­tiv­i­ties. The agree­ment con­sol­i­dates and ex­pands the ex­change of in­for­ma­tion be­tween the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion and the CIVS that is al­ready suc­cess­ful­ly tak­ing place with re­gard to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the Gurlitt art trove. Reg­u­lar meet­ings and joint events are planned. The part­ners will set up a joint work­ing group to pre­pare cur­rent top­ics for the co­op­er­a­tion and to sup­port its im­ple­men­ta­tion.

Prof. Moni­ka Grüt­ters, chair of the Foun­da­tion Board of the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion and Com­mis­sion­er for Cul­ture and Me­dia, said: “With this co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment, we are go­ing a step fur­ther in ef­fec­tive­ly im­ple­ment­ing the Wash­ing­ton Prin­ci­ples of 1998, which have set bench­marks around the world with their ref­er­ence to ‘just and fair’ so­lu­tions. Trans­paren­cy and net­work­ing are the cru­cial foun­da­tions of prove­nance re­search, as stolen and con­fis­cat­ed art­works are scat­tered in many parts of the world. This al­so ap­plies to archive ma­te­ri­als, which can be in­for­ma­tive. In­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion is there­fore es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant. The signed co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment is al­so a fur­ther in­di­ca­tion of the close Fran­co–Ger­man friend­ship and part­ner­ship in the cul­tur­al do­main.”

Rüdi­ger Hütte, full-time mem­ber of the Foun­da­tion’s Ex­ec­u­tive Board, said: “This co­op­er­a­tion will make it pos­si­ble to pool Ger­man and French find­ings in the field of prove­nance re­search for the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed prop­er­ty and the pro­mo­tion of fair and just so­lu­tions. The in­sti­tu­tion­al net­works be­tween the two coun­tries, which are so im­por­tant for achiev­ing this shared goal, will al­so be strength­ened through the ex­change of re­search re­sults and sci­en­tif­ic ex­per­tise.”

Anne-Marie De­scôtes, am­bas­sador of the French Re­pub­lic to the Fed­er­al Re­pub­lic of Ger­many, said: “This co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment strength­ens Fran­co–Ger­man syn­er­gy in an area in which we need to im­prove: the resti­tu­tion of cul­tur­al goods. We are thus tak­ing the ini­tia­tive to pool to­geth­er our re­sources, tools and meth­ods, be­cause prove­nance re­search can on­ly work across bor­ders. It needs to re­spond to the de­mands of the vic­tims of ex­pro­pri­a­tions, their fam­i­lies and their heirs. The new French or­ga­ni­za­tion for the resti­tu­tion of cul­tur­al goods seized as a re­sult of Nazi per­se­cu­tion is con­se­quent­ly ori­ent­ed to Ger­many. This part­ner­ship nur­tures strong and dy­nam­ic ex­change which, in par­tic­u­lar, demon­strates to us the in­no­va­tive strength of the Fran­co–Ger­man friend­ship in the fields of cul­ture and mem­o­ry.”

Michel Jean­noutot, pres­i­dent of the CIVS, said: “As not on­ly a strong sign that the CIVS is an­chored in a now con­sol­i­dat­ed part­ner­ship with the Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion, this co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment will in­vig­o­rate pro­fes­sion­al di­a­log and ex­change of in­for­ma­tion in the field of cul­tur­al goods con­fis­cat­ed through Nazi per­se­cu­tion. With the Eu­ro­pean Resti­tu­tion Com­mit­tees, which ad­vo­cate the re­turn of Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed prop­er­ty, com­ing clos­er to­geth­er and be­com­ing in­ter­con­nect­ed, this co­op­er­a­tion—through its unique­ness and strength—at­tests to the will of our two coun­tries to re­vi­tal­ize the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Wash­ing­ton Prin­ci­ples.”

David Zivie, di­rec­tor of the M2RS, ex­plained: “The sign­ing of this co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment is, sym­bol­i­cal­ly, an im­por­tant act be­cause it is the first con­crete ac­tion to be tak­en by the new Mis­sion de recherche et de resti­tu­tion des bi­ens cul­turels spoliés en­tre 1933 et 1945, which was es­tab­lished on­ly a few days ago with­in the French Min­istry of Cul­ture. It is im­por­tant to be­gin by es­tab­lish­ing a har­mo­nious re­la­tion­ship with our Ger­man part­ner: The de­vel­op­ment of a net­work of re­searchers and ex­perts is a fun­da­men­tal el­e­ment of our work which will en­sure we can make progress more quick­ly, of­fer mu­tu­al sup­port and ex­change in­for­ma­tion about the cas­es we have in com­mon.”

About the co­op­er­a­tion part­ners:

About the Foun­da­tion: The Ger­man Lost Art Foun­da­tion is the cen­tral point of con­tact, na­tion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, for all mat­ters per­tain­ing to the un­law­ful seizure of cul­tur­al prop­er­ty in Ger­many in the 20th cen­tu­ry. The Foun­da­tion’s pri­ma­ry fo­cus in this re­gard is on cul­tur­al goods con­fis­cat­ed as a re­sult of per­se­cu­tion dur­ing the Na­tion­al So­cial­ist era, es­pe­cial­ly prop­er­ty owned by Jew­ish cit­i­zens (“Nazi-con­fis­cat­ed prop­er­ty”). Its work in this area is based on the Wash­ing­ton Prin­ci­ples adopt­ed in 1998, which Ger­many pledged to im­ple­ment as part of its his­tor­i­cal and moral com­mit­ment (Joint Dec­la­ra­tion of 1999). The Foun­da­tion’s ar­eas of ac­tiv­i­ty al­so cov­er cul­tur­al prop­er­ty dis­placed as a re­sult of war (“loot­ed prop­er­ty”) and cul­tur­al goods lost in the So­vi­et Oc­cu­pa­tion Zone and the GDR. In ad­di­tion, the Foun­da­tion deals with cul­tur­al goods and col­lec­tions from colo­nial con­texts. It sup­ports prove­nance re­search by pro­vid­ing re­search grants, and al­so doc­u­ments lost cul­tur­al items as search re­quests and found-ob­ject re­ports in its pub­licly ac­ces­si­ble Lost Art Database. It was found­ed by the Ger­man fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, the fed­er­al states and the three lead­ing mu­nic­i­pal as­so­ci­a­tions in 2015 as a foun­da­tion with le­gal ca­pac­i­ty un­der civ­il law. Its reg­is­tered of­fice is in Magde­burg, Ger­many.

About CIVS: The Com­mis­sion for the Com­pen­sa­tion of Vic­tims of Spo­li­a­tion Re­sult­ing from the An­ti-Semitic Leg­is­la­tion in Force dur­ing the Oc­cu­pa­tion (CIVS) is an ad­min­is­tra­tive body un­der the au­thor­i­ty of the Prime Min­is­ter found­ed in 1999. CIVS is re­spon­si­ble for ex­am­in­ing and pro­cess­ing ap­pli­ca­tions for com­pen­sa­tion sub­mit­ted to the French State by vic­tims of ex­pro­pri­a­tions, their fam­i­lies and their heirs. In ad­di­tion to his­tor­i­cal re­search, the Com­mis­sion pro­pos­es repa­ra­tion mea­sures by rec­om­mend­ing com­pen­sa­tion or resti­tu­tion. The dam­ages that give rise to the right to com­pen­sa­tion or resti­tu­tion in­clude the loot­ing of apart­ments and hous­es, the ex­pro­pri­a­tion of busi­ness prop­er­ty and re­al es­tate, the con­fis­ca­tion of bank ac­counts, the seizure of in­sur­ance poli­cies and the theft or forced sale of cul­tur­al prop­er­ty, both by the oc­cu­py­ing force and by the Vichy regime. With a widened rec­om­men­da­tion ca­pac­i­ty and an en­hanced rec­om­men­da­tion com­mit­tee with four new ex­perts from the fields of art his­to­ry, the art mar­ket, the his­to­ry of the Sec­ond World War and cul­tur­al her­itage, the CIVS has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for all an­ti-Semitic ex­pro­pri­a­tions that took place in France dur­ing the Oc­cu­pa­tion. The CIVS will work close­ly with the Min­istry of Cul­ture’s M2RS de­part­ment in 2019 as part of the re­struc­tur­ing of French resti­tu­tion pol­i­cy with re­gard to cul­tur­al ob­jects seized as a re­sult of Nazi per­se­cu­tion.

About M2RS: The Mis­sion de recherche et de resti­tu­tion des bi­ens cul­turels spoliés en­tre 1933 et 1945 (Mis­sion for Re­search and Resti­tu­tion of Cul­tur­al Prop­er­ty Dis­pos­sessed be­tween 1933 and 1945) was re­cent­ly es­tab­lished in April 2019. As a new de­part­ment with­in the Min­istry of Cul­ture, it is in charge of French repa­ra­tions pol­i­cy and cul­ture of re­mem­brance with re­gard to Nazi-loot­ed prop­er­ty. The Mis­sion is re­spon­si­ble for co­or­di­nat­ing all ac­tions to iden­ti­fy ex­pro­pri­at­ed art­works and their own­ers, to bet­ter un­der­stand their where­abouts, to present them to the pub­lic and to resti­tute them. As a steer­ing au­thor­i­ty, the Mis­sion al­so ex­am­ines resti­tu­tion and com­pen­sa­tion cas­es be­fore for­ward­ing them to the CIVS, which will rec­om­mend a de­ci­sion. The Mis­sion al­so works close­ly with mu­se­ums, li­braries, archives and re­search in­sti­tu­tions in France and abroad.