A committee appointed by the Dutch government has come up with a plan for a state-owned collection’s controversial holdings, reports the New York Times.
The Netherlands Art Property Collection (known as the NK Collection) comprises thousands of priceless objects, including paintings worth millions by Dutch Golden Age masters, repatriated by the Allies from Germany to the Netherlands after World War II. Most of these objects were looted from Jews who were killed, deported, or forced to sell their holdings by the Nazis. While provenance research overseen by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science remains ongoing, the items’ rightful owners have yet to be located.
The collection is currently under the custodianship of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, which oversees its storage and makes loans of art to museums and government buildings.
Under a proposal issued by the Committee on Heirless Jewish Looted Art, the guardianship of these “orphaned” objects would be given over to a Dutch Jewish foundation, preferably one housed at the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, where the art can be on public view. The proposal includes an annual budget to create exhibitions, as well as a draft of a wall label explaining any exhibited item’s connection to the Holocaust.
Not everybody is happy with this solution. According to the Times, the Dutch Immigrants Association, which represents Dutch Jews who live in Israel, has proposed selling the collection and giving the proceeds to Dutch Jewish communities in Israel and the Netherlands. Others object to turning the art over to a foundation, arguing that it is too soon to declare the restitution process over. (Lodewijk Asscher, chair of the committee, says the plan will still make restitution possible when heirs are found.)
To date, the restitution process has been slow, with the Dutch Restitutions Commission—which rules on claims for the return of Nazi-era looted works of art— eliciting international criticism for allegedly favoring (government-owned) museums over families. Some 700 objects were returned to their owners shortly after the war and a further 1600 were sold at auction. Since then, an additional 300–800 items have been restituted. Over 3,500 objects remain in the NK Collection.
