Cultural property looted by the Nazis (1933-1945)
Artworks and objects whose owners, mainly Jewish, were dispossessed through persecution between 1933 and 1945, whose restitution creates lasting title risk for current holders, museums or collectors.
Between 1933 and 1945, hundreds of thousands of works were confiscated, looted or sold under duress by persecuted people. Many have since circulated on the market, changing hands and entering public and private collections. The Washington Principles of 1998 invited states to identify these works and seek just and fair solutions with the heirs. In France, a commission created in 1999 compensates victims of spoliation, and the act of July 22, 2023 allows property recognized as looted to be removed from public collections, by administrative decision rather than a case-by-case act of Parliament, in order to return it. For a collection's insurer, a work whose provenance has a gap between 1933 and 1945 carries title risk that can materialize decades later, and which a standard fine art policy does not cover.
Act No. 2023-650 of July 22, 2023 created a general procedure for returning cultural property looted between 1933 and 1945, where in 2022 a specific act had been needed to return fifteen works, including a Klimt from the Musée d'Orsay, to their owners' heirs.
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