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Submitting a restitution application
The Restitutions Committee only gives a recommendation at the written request of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science. This means applications for restitution have to be submitted to the Minister. If an application meets the minimum criteria, then the Minister will put it before the Restitutions Committee. The applicant will then receive a letter from the committee explaining the procedure. They will also be asked to provide more information about the claimed object in a questionnaire. This will include questions about the precise work of art involved, the relationship of the applicant to the original owner, and the conditions under which the artwork was lost.
The postal address for the submission of restitution applications is:
The Minister of Education, Culture and Science
Ministry of OCW
P.O. Box 16375
2500 BJ The Hague
The Netherlands
Investigation and report
The Restitutions Committee will then start an investigation into the original ownership situation of the claimed art object. It will investigate how, and under what circumstances, the owner lost possession of it. The committee members and the secretariat have the required expertise to carry out this investigation, but can if necessary call on the help of external specialists.
The length of the investigation primarily depends on the information available to the committee, either from the applicant or from other sources. Once the investigation has been completed, the applicant will be sent a report and given the opportunity to reply.
Recommendation
Once the investigation has been completed, the Restitutions Committee will hold extensive consultations before issuing a recommendation. After the recommendation has been signed by the committee members, it is sent to the Minister. The applicant will be notified that a recommendation has been made. However, the details of this recommendation will only be provided after the Minister has made a decision about whether or not to honour the restitution application.
Length of the inquiry
The length of the inquiry can vary considerably from case to case. Sometimes the committee has to gather specific information from third parties, such as archives inside or outside of the Netherlands.
Publication and confidentiality
The responsibility for publicising the recommendations of the committee and the subsequent decisions taken by the Minister lies with the Ministry of OCW. In all cases, the Restitutions Committee only publishes its recommendation after the applicant has been informed of the decision. The committee has a policy of not revealing the identity of the applicants.
The committee always asks the applicant for permission before carrying out inquiries into personal details, and before using these details in its reports and recommendations. This with a view to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. If reports and recommendations are published, then that will in principle be done in an anonymous way to protect the privacy of those involved.
Furthermore, the committee has an obligation of confidentiality with regard to documents from confidential archives and/or other documents. It therefore only refers to these in its inquiry reports by way of citations and source references.
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