A recent report by several German media outlets, including the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, has raised concerns over the handling of restitution claims by the Free State of Bavaria in relation to Holocaust victims’ heirs. According to the report, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts has been withholding information about artworks likely stolen from Jewish collectors during the Third Reich, which are now held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
Markus Stötzel, a lawyer representing the heirs of the Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, described the situation as a “scandal with implications” and accused Bavarian Culture Minister Markus Blume of personal responsibility for the return of Nazi-looted art.
A statement from the Jewish Community has been obtained, which emphasizes that an internal review of the Bavarian State Painting Collections had already established that the affected artworks should be returned in accordance with the Washington Principles of 1998.
The statement notes that since 2014, around 200 objects have been listed as “with a high degree of certainty” having been taken from Jewish owners during the persecution and a further 800 are classified as “possibly seized.” These sensitive data were also submitted to the Bavarian Ministry of Science and the Arts, but no action was taken and the required consequences were not drawn. The uncovered facts were not published on the electronic portal for such cases and no attempts were made to contact the potential owners to clarify the details and initiate the return of the artworks. The interministerial conciliation commission at the federal level was also not approached.
In response to “regular inquiries from lawyers” about specific artworks, the Bavarian authorities provided routine and apparently false responses, stating that “initial investigations by art historians were being conducted.” It is noteworthy that immediately after the list was published in the media, the specialists involved in the work received a letter from the director of the State Painting Collections warning of negative consequences in the event of communication with the press. An investigation into the leak of confidential information has been launched.
The authors of the statement conclude that the Jewish community is appalled by the extent of the “sabotage of the voluntary obligations” of the German state, as in the more than twenty years of work of the conciliation commission, only 23 objects from German museums have been returned to their owners, despite hundreds of requests from Holocaust victims.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung also published an exclusive statement from Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Israelite Religious Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, regarding the handling of looted art in the Bavarian State Painting Collections. The events in Munich are causing “great uncertainty” in Jewish communities in Germany, according to Knobloch. The implementation of the Washington Principles of 1998 for the restitution of artworks taken by the National Socialists and their willing accomplices from Jewish owners requires great care, transparency and “the will to quickly return stolen works to their owners or heirs.