Returning Looted Art

German museum directors met Monday with Bernd Neumann, Germany's junior minister for culture, at the chancellery in Berlin to discuss the restitution of artwork stolen or bought by the Nazis.

When Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Berlin Street Scene" was sold for 30 million euros ($38 million) at Tiffany's auction house in New York last week, members of Germany's art scene called a meeting.

Neumann said the restitution process had to be made "more transparent, more coordinated and more comprehensible."

"Germany is unreservedly committed to its moral obligation to restore art seized by the Nazis," he added. "There will be no watering down of this obligation."

No concrete decisions were made concerning how the restitution could take place, said government spokesperson Thomas Steg, adding that the gathering served as a forum to exchange ideas and information.

Germany sees a particular moral responsibility in the matter, Steg said.

Kirchner's 1913 oil had belonged to the Jewish art collector Alfred Hess before it was acquired by the Nazis. It later made its way to Berlin's Brücke Museum, which returned the work to Hess' heirs, who in turn auctioned it at Tiffany's.

Request for more art research

From 1933, Nazi officials ruthlessly plundered the art collections of Jewish families and experts estimate that there are some 100,000 works worldwide that have still not been returned to their rightful heirs. More than a dozen art institutions are affected, according to some estimates.

Monday's meeting heard that 1,000 German museums and galleries are bracing for restitution claims. There are claims in the pipeline for some 100 works from the Expressionist period alone.

One approach is to develop a special restitution fund that would put museums in the financial position to be able to buy back restituted works, Steg said.

Martin Roth, general director of the State Art Collection in Dresden appealed for greater investment in provenance research, which traces the origins of a work of art.

"It has to be made clear to those in charge that (provenance research) can't just be done on the side," said Roth. "It is criminology paired with a lot of technical knowledge."

Since 1991, the State Art Collection in Dresden has returned over 800 objects and works of art, said the general director.

Second round-table planned

Roth has also advocated finding a European, and not purely German, solution to the matter.

Neumann highlighted moral responsibility and the need for transparency in restitution deals. He said museums are complaining that the restitution business has become extremely commercialized.

A second restitution summit is in the works, according to German news agency dpa. A date has not yet been set, but it is to include organizations representing victims of Nazi persecution.