The Restitutions Committee advised the Minister not to restitute 14 plates to the applicants, the only granddaughters of Abraham Citroen. The applicants were excluded by their father Karel Adolf Citroen as heirs to his estate in his will. The Committee takes the view that it should not infringe the freedom of a person to determine for themselves who their legal successor or successors pursuant to inheritance law are by departing from the general rule regarding the ownership requirements in its assessment framework. The restitution application was rejected on these grounds.

The Committee has advised the Minister to restitute three Chinese covered vases and a carafe with stopper from the NK Collection to the heirs of Louis Morpurgo. The Committee established that items from the Morpurgo art dealership’s trading stock were sold, looted and plundered on a large scale during the occupation. Louis and Lion Morpurgo were able to continue their business for a while after the German invasion. But they too fell victim to anti-Jewish measures and had to cease their art trading activities in the autumn of 1941.

Hitler viewed the Order of Freemasons as an ‘enemy of the people' and a Jewish conspiracy. The Order was banned shortly after his rise to power in Germany. The ban in the Netherlands followed in September 1940. Possessions belonging to the Order of Freemasons were systematically stolen and sold under duress from May 1940 onwards. Lodges (local associations) were liquidated throughout the country.