[CPProt.net] UK: Court bars return of looted Old Masters

[MSN CPPnet]

Court bars return of looted Old Masters
By Nikki Tait 
Published: May 28 2005 03:00 | Last updated: May 28 2005 03:00

A "moral obligation" to return looted works of art cannot override laws
barring trustees of the British Museum from disposing of objects in its
collections.

 
The High Court ruling yesterday will prevent the museum from handing back
four Old Master drawings which are thought to have been part of a collection
seized by the Nazis in 1939 from a Czech man, Doctor Arthur Feldmann.

Dr Feldmann died after being imprisoned, but his family has been seeking the
return of the drawings. It will also have implications for other artworks
facing ownership claims and for other institutions with similar bars. A
representative for the Commission for Looted Art in Europe described the
ruling as "significant" for all claimants of looted art from the Nazi era,
and said that it showed "that the government ought now to legislate in order
to achieve clarity for all claimants".

The museum acquired the drawings after the second world war. Although it
stressed that the acquisition was in good faith, three years ago its
trustees decided that the drawings represented "a unique moral claim" which
the museum wished to meet. 

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