Recommendation

On 15 December 2021 the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (hereinafter referred to as the Minister) asked the Restitutions Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) to issue advice concerning the application of 18 November 2021 for the restitution of 26 paintings from the Netherlands Art Property Collection (hereinafter referred to as the NK Collection). The case is registered at the Committee as RC 1.195-B. The application for restitution of these artworks was submitted by XX also on behalf of six other heirs (hereinafter referred to as the Applicants). Since their return to the Netherlands after the Second World War, the artworks have been part of the NK Collection. Three of them (NK 1408, NK 1409 and NK 1546) are currently in the depot (Collectie Centrum Nederland, CCNL) of the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency (hereinafter referred to as the RCE) in Amersfoort. The RCE has loaned the remaining 23 works to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. An overview of the artworks concerned, their NK number and their location is appended to this advice.
In this application the Minister is represented by YY, movable heritage and Dutch National Art Collection consultant with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.

2. Requirements for the Substantive Handling of a Restitution Application (Section 1 of the Assessment Framework)

The Committee first of all investigated whether the restitution application can be substantively handled. The Committee established that:

a. this is not a case about which the Council for the Restoration of Rights or another court has issued a substantive ruling;
b. this is not a case about which legal proceedings have been instituted before a court;
c. this is not a case concerning an item of cultural value regarding which the Applicants or their legal predecessors have expressly waived their rights or the Applicants or their legal predecessors have already reached a settlement;
d. this is not a case about which the Restitutions Committee has already issued a recommendation or binding ruling;
e. it is not a requirement for all those entitled to have submitted the restitution application because the case concerns an item of cultural value that is held by the Dutch State.

In view of section 1 of the assessment framework, this means that the Committee handles the application substantively.

4. The Applicants’ Point of View

The application concerns 26 paintings that were in the possession of N.V. Bankierskantoor Lisser & Rosenkranz, that during the occupation came into the possession of the Nazi regime, and that are now in the NK Collection (part of the Dutch National Art Collection). The Applicants point out that Franz Koenigs transferred the full and unencumbered ownership of his collection of drawings and paintings to N.V. Bankierskantoor Lisser & Rosenkranz in liquidation in order to be discharged from his debt. Under pressure from an imminent invasion, immediately before the occupation of 10 May 1940 and shortly afterwards, the bank then sold part of the Koenigs Collection in circumstances directly related to the Nazi regime. In the second instance, the Applicants requested the Committee to show that the transfer of the ownership was in fact null and void. That further viewpoint of the Applicants comes down to a new request to reconsider case number RC 4.123. As regards the present advice, the Committee will therefore limit itself to the application submitted on 18 November 2021.

6. Advice

The Restitutions Committee advises the State Secretary for Culture and Media to reject the application for restitution of the 26 artworks in the NK Collection.

Adopted on 13 June 2022 by J. Kohnstamm (Chair), J.F. Cohen, S.G. Cohen-Willner, J.H. van Kreveld, D. Oostinga, E.H. Swaab (Vice-Chair) and C.C. Wesselink, and signed by the Chair and the Secretary.

(J. Kohnstamm, Chair)                       (E.M. van Sterkenburg, Secretary)