Posted on 06/26/2009 8:30:12 PM PDT by Jonny foreigner
Jewish groups and representatives of 49 countries are gathering in Prague for talks on returning art and possessions stolen by the Nazis.
The five-day conference in the Czech capital will also aim to increase Holocaust awareness and education.
The Nazis stole an estimated 650,000 religious items and works of art from European Jews during World War II.
While much of the art been returned, a great deal remains in museums and private collections.
The BBC's Rob Cameron in Prague says there has often been considerable reluctance on the part of those in possession of the looted art to return it.
Steps have been taken in countries such as Austria to make it easier for owners to claim back looted art.
But the US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Christian Kennedy, attending the conference, said many central and eastern European countries had not yet found a way to implement a restitution process.
He said any such process would have to be consistent with national law while also ensuring non-citizens seeking to reclaim property were given equal treatment.
Delegates from the 49 states will be asked what progress they have made in returning looted Jewish property since the 1998 conference in Washington.
That meeting introduced ground-breaking principles for dealing with such items.
The Prague conference, the last major event of the Czech Republic's European Union presidency, is aimed at reinvigorating that process, says our correspondent.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
well i guess it should not be a big problem to get it back if a state is the “owner” but if it´s a private person who bought for example a painting years ago not knowing that it was stolen from the jews? what then?
would anyone know of a list of items that are “missing”....a catalogue of some sort?
Israel got $60 Billion from the Germans, and at least $250 Billion (in 2009 dollars) from the USA, plus more from other countries. Sorry, that is enough.
i don´t think that something like a list of missing items exists. i guess many heirs will just never know that they “theoretical” own valuable art.
Israel got $60 Billion from the Germans, and at least $250 Billion (in 2009 dollars) from the USA, plus more from other countries. Sorry, that is enough.
Doesn't Soros still have some of it? Why?
Why hasn’t the Louvre had to return the stuff the French government stole from French Aristocrats murdered in the French Revolution?
And what about the loot the huns stole and was never returned? Not only “high art” but the untold amount of property burned looted destroyed in thousands of villages and towns all over Europe?
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