Post-War Restitutions

About the Exhibition
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Works of Art Seized by
Nazi Organizations
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The ERR’s Exchange
Operations
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Post-War Restitutions
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Works Purchased on the
Paris Art Market
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Works of Unknown Origin
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Works Returned to
France by Germany in 1994
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Upon the fall of the Reich, large-scale investigations, conducted mostly by the American army, facilitated an assessment of the qualitative and quantitative scope of the cultural assets transferred out of occupied countries and into Germany during the war. Members of the ERR (Operation Rosenberg Administrative Staff) and German art dealers were subjected to interrogations. The allied occupation authorities required museums and individuals to declare purchases carried out in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. As part of the national policies for the restoration of cultural heritage, all assets had to be returned to their countries of origin. These assets were gathered at collecting points, established notably in Munich, Düsseldorf, Offenbach, and Wiesbaden, where they were examined by experts from the various allied nations.

In France, the research of recovered artworks was entrusted to the Commission de récupération artistique (Commission of Artistic Recuperation), or CRA, created in the fall of 1944. Rose Valland, a former curator at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris who took great risks keeping track of the transfers of looted artworks carried out by the Germans from the Jeu de Paume, was invited to take an active part in the CRA, and proved to be a uniquely valuable witness on behalf of the French museums. The CRA received 2,289 petitions for the recovery of cultural assets. The examination of these claims was recorded in Répertoire des biens spoliés (Directory of Spoliated Assets).

From 1944 to 1949, the CRA was able to restitute to their rightful owners 45,000 out of the 60,000 objects or artworks returned to France.