[CPProt.net] PRESS RELEASE, Netherlands: POSITIVE RECOMMENDATION BY RESTITUTIONS COMMITTEE ON RETURN OF WORKS BY TROOST AND VAN DER MIJN

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

PRESS RELEASE 

The Hague, 20 april 2005	


POSITIVE RECOMMENDATION BY RESTITUTIONS COMMITTEE  ON RETURN OF WORKS BY
TROOST AND VAN DER MIJN 

THE HAGUE - The Restitutions Committee has advised the State Secretary for
Education, Culture and Science, Medy Van der Laan, that the NK works of art
The maternity visit (NK 1434) and The doctor's visit (NK 1435) by Cornelis
Troost and Still life with iris, peonies and other flowers in a vase (NK
1672) by Herman van der Mijn should be returned to the heirs of the original
owner. These works have been part of the Netherlands Art Property Collection
that is managed by the Dutch government since the end of the 1940s.

In February 2003, the heirs of the original owner, a Jewish businessman
living in Germany, submitted an application for restitution for the two
works by Troost. During the subsequent investigation into the facts, it
emerged that there was a third painting with the same provenance in the
Netherlands Art Property Collection, namely the above-mentioned work of Van
der Mijn. When the Restitutions Committee informed the applicants about this
find, they asked for this painting to be returned to them too. 

In 1935, the original owner of the three paintings had had a tax payment for
Jewish citizens of 914,000 Reichsmarks imposed on him for applying to leave
Germany with his family. This had forced him to sell certain property,
including his art collection. In 1936, the paintings, including the three
present paintings, were sold at auction in Berlin. For all three paintings,
the Committee concludes that there was an involuntary loss of ownership due
to circumstances directly related to the Nazi regime. 

After the auction in Berlin, the paintings ended up in nazi property after
passing through Jewish art dealers in the Netherlands. The Restitutions
Committee was faced with the question whether the heirs of the owners of
there art dealers would also be entitled to submit a claim for restitution
because their sale to Germans might also have been an involuntary sale. The
Ekkart Committee, which formulated the recommendations on which the
Restitutions Committee bases its advice, had announced that in the case of
conflicting claims to a work of art the first loss of ownership should
prevail. Thereupon the Restitutions Committee concluded, based on her
investigations into the claims of the heirs in question, that in this case
the unvoluntary loss of ownership of the original owner prevailed over the
subsequent loss by the art dealerships.

The State Secretary adopted the recommendation of the Restitutions Committee
and decided on 11 April 2005 to restitute the three paintings.

Since its foundation in January 2002, 29 cases have been submitted to the
Advisory Committee on the Assessment of Restitution Applications for Items
of Cultural Value and the Second World War, otherwise known as the
Restitutions Committee. So far, it has issued recommenation in 17 of these
cases.

Further information:
For further information, please contact Nicole Hagemans, acting
secretary/reporter for the Restitutions Committee, tel.: +31 (0) 70 376 59
93. 

For more information on the State Secretary's decision, please contact
Margriet Bokhorst of the Information Department of the Ministry of
Education, Culture and Science (OCW), tel.: +31 (0) 70 412 4804.

The full text of our advice can be found on our website at
www.restitutiecommissie.nl, along with general information about the
Restitutions Committee and its work.