2023-07-14 04:23:25
“Historic and highly symbolic”. It is with these words that Senator Béatrice Gosselin (relative LR) qualified the law on the restitution of works of art stolen by the Nazis adopted on Thursday. The National Assembly, followed by the Senate, voted for this text unanimously.
The objective of the law is to set a general framework for removing works from museums in order to return them to their legitimate owners. Until now, this restitution had to be done through legislative texts, on a case-by-case basis. It will also be possible for the beneficiaries to enter into an agreement to obtain compensation other than by restitution.
Nearly 100,000 works stolen by the Nazis in France
“This day will encourage us to think of all the families whose objects, works of art, books have been looted, fragments of a history that is both intimate and collective,” said Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak, while welcoming “a law of action” which will allow “concrete acts of justice”.
The text targets property that was stolen between January 30, 1933 and May 8, 1945, “in the context of the anti-Semitic persecutions perpetrated by Nazi Germany, by the authorities of the territories that they occupied, controlled or influenced and by the French State between July 10, 1940 and August 24, 1944”.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time that a law mentions the date of July 10, 1940, and therefore the vote by which 426 deputies and 244 senators granted all powers to Marshal Pétain”, affirmed Pierre Ouzoulias, communist senator Hauts-de-Seine.
According to the Ministry of Culture, nearly 100,000 works were stolen in France during the Second World War, including 60,000 found in Germany after the Liberation. 45,000 were returned, and 2,200 entrusted to national museums.
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