An international conference has called on German museums and cultural institutions to intensify their research into the origins of paintings that changed hands under the Nazis.
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"Berlin Street Scene" was returned to its rightful owners; other claims remain unresolvedImage: AP
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The organizations that finance the museums should provide sufficient funds to bankroll investigations into the origins of paintings that changed hands under the Nazis, the gathering of 260 experts from Germany, Israel and the US said in a statement released in Potsdam, near Berlin, on Wednesday.
The meeting, organized by the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies, adopted a resolution calling for a "fair and just solution" in ongoing cases relating to compensation claims or restitution demands for art works sold under duress or confiscated by the Nazis.
"The institutions have to act and trace possible heirs," Julius H Schoeps, director of the Mendelssohn Center, told German news agency dpa ahead of the conference.
Forgotten commitments?
The three-day meeting reminded Germany of the commitments it made to the 1998 Washington Conference on Nazi-confiscated art when it pledged to do everything in its power to identify paintings that had not been returned to their owners. Franz Marc paintings are also thought to be the subjects of restitution claimsImage: AP German museums are concerned that they could loose some of their most important paintings because of a contentious law governing works of art confiscated from Jews by the Nazis.
Experts estimate 100 paintings by German Expressionists are subjects of restitution claims, among them works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Franz Marc, a founder of the Blue Rider group.
In a high-profile case last November, Kirchner's "Berlin Street Scene" was sold at a New York auction for $38 million (28 million euros) after being returned by a Berlin museum to the granddaughter of its former owner, Jewish art collector Alfred Hess.
