ANN: Restitution of Nazi-looted art: Recent developments in Germany and the Netherlands in comparative perspectives (Hybrid, 25 June 2026, 6.30 PM)

On 1 December 2025, the new German Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property replaced the former German „Advisory Commission“ („Beratende Kommission“). This new Court is a fundamental innovation in the process of restitution of Nazi-looted art under the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. The new Court will decide the case on specially designed substantive rules: the „Assessment Framework for Examining and Deciding on the Treatment of Nazi-looted Property“, available in German language as well as in English, French and Hebrew. 

The Netherlands have also seen significant developments in recent years. The assessment framework, Appendix to Section 4(1) of the 2021 Decree establishing a Restitutions Committee, was revised following the so-called Kohnstamm Report of 2020 (on which we had a Webinar with Jacob Kohnstamm in January 2021) and, just recently, in March 2026, another advisory committee, established by the Dutch Central Jewish Organisation (CJO) upon request by the Government, has issued a report with recommendations on the future of “Heirless Jewish Looted art in the NK-collection.” 

These recent developments in Germany and the Netherlands will be put in comparative perspectives in a panel discussion. This discussion will address focal points of the two most recent assessment frameworks in Europe, for example the material scope, the requirements for proving original ownership on the part of the claimant, for attributing the loss of the cultural object to the Nazi regime, in particular in relation to „flight goods“, the configuration of the just and fair solutions, and more. It is the recurrent experience of comparative legal research that only by comparison with the other we understand ourselves. 

We are delighted to welcome Dr Tabitha Oost, MA, Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University of Amsterdam (Faculty of Law), a leading expert on the restitution process in the Netherlands. 

Her dialogue partner will be Prof Dr Matthias Weller, Mag.rer.publ., MAE, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Professor for Civil Law, Art and Cultural Property Law, Academic Director of the Research Project „Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art“, Director of the Institute for German and International Civil Procedural Law, Co-Chair of the Research Center for Provenance Research, Art and Cultural Property Law, Founding Member of the Bonn Research Center for Reconciliation Research as well as Principal Investigator of the Bonn Center for Slavery and Dependency Studies (BCDSS). 

The audience will be warmly invited to participate in the discussion. 

We would be delighted to welcome you at this event, preferably on site, but also via video conference. Please register with sekretariat.weller@jura.uni-bonn.de in order to help us organising the event! Please indicate how you wish to attend, on site or via video conference. In case you opt for participation via video, you will receive the link to the zoom conference shortly (one day) before the event in response to the email address that you used for registering with sekretariat.weller@jura.uni-bonn.de.

Please do not hesitate to forward this invitation to friends and colleagues of yours, if you wish.

Further information on this occasion:

– Forthcoming: Wiener Symposium Kunstrecht aktuell, 1. und 2. Oktober 2026, https://jus.sfu.ac.at/de/event/wiener-symposion-kunstrecht-aktuell/;

– Forthcoming: Matthias Weller, The New German “Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Art”, JUSTICE (The Legal Magazine of the International Associatiokn of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists) 2026 (77), pp. 47-57; 

-Forthcoming: Matthias Weller, Neue Wege zu „gerechten und fairen Lösungen“: Das „Schiedsgericht NS-Raubgut“, in Sören Groß/Ron Hellfritsch, „Gerechte und faire Lösungen“? Perspektiven im Umgang mit Unrechtskontexten;

– Out now: Matthias Weller, Das neue „Schiedsgericht NS-Raubgut“, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) 2026, 719-724;

– Out now: Matthias Weller, Grundlegende Neuerungen in der internationalen Kunstrestitution: „Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art“ und Einführung einer „Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit NS-Raubgut“IPRax 2025, 541-551;

– Out now (open access): Matthias Weller et al., Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art: Eine Bestandsaufnahme, DeGruyter 2025, 1228 Seiten, https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.1515/9783111382883/html?srsltid=AfmBOoqcyizW5ht2FsyuSNKFQHzJymgCqB4O_heItNLH6Z-61mnKc9Il.  

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