Berlin ‘Exemplary’ in Restitution of Nazi Loot

Provenance expert and frequent commentator on the Cornelius Gurlitt saga, Uwe Hartmann reports that Berlin has been “exemplary” in its efforts to research artworks suspected of being Nazi loot.

Efforts to review the collections of the state’s museums have increased in recent years. Twenty-three projects have been proposed by Berlin institutions to determine the whereabouts of artworks in their collections during the Third Reich (1933-1945) and, in cases where the works have been found to have connections to the Nazi regime, return them to their rightful heirs.

Other German states have been less zealous in their research. However, this does also appear to go hand in hand with the number of modern art collections in their respective regions.