Looted Cultural Property in Russia:

12 November 2021: Claims Conference/WJRO Translation of Listings by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation

Albania
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Belarus
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Canada
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Georgia
Greece
Korea
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Norway
Paraguay
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
Ukraine
Uruguay
Yugoslavia

The Claims Conference-WJRO provides the following concerning information on listings by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation as a service to provenance researchers.

The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation on its website entitled “Cultural Values-Victims of War” in a section on “Moved Cultural Values” has published a partial list of paintings, drawings, graphics, archaeological objects, musical instruments and other categories of objects that were brought into Russia by the Soviet Trophy Brigades at the end of World War II.

So far, objects listed have overwhelmingly been objects taken from museums and repositories in Germany and other states that were enemies of the Soviet Union during the war, which under Russian legislation are not subject to restitution. So far as is known, specialists in Germany trying to track what was taken from the various German museums after the war that still is in Moscow and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union are almost the only ones outside of Russia following the listings. Since much of what the Soviet Trophy Brigades took included many objects looted by the Nazis and their allies from Jews and others of their victims, it is not impossible, however, that some such objects may be in the listings, although in all likelihood only by accident. Although parts of the website are in German, English, and French, the catalog of the objects is exclusively in Russian. To make the listing better known to non-Russian speakers, the Claims Conference/WJRO presents on its website a translation into English by Yagna Yass-Alston of all the listings of paintings that are by known artists:

Paintings 2016:
https://art.claimscon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/lostart.ru_translation-paintings-2016-September-2021.pdf;

Paintings 2018:
https://art.claimscon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/lostart.ru_translation-paintings-2018-September-2021.pdf;

Works on Paper 2016:
https://art.claimscon.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/lostart.ru_translation-works-on-paper-2016-September-2021.pdf
;

For more information on the Looted Art and Cultural Property Initiative of the Claims Conference/WJRO, please see: https://art.claimscon.org/

Contact Information:

Wesley Fisher, Director of Research                           

Ruth Jolanda Weinberger, Historian

Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany                                                      
PO Box 1215, New York, NY 10113, USA
Tel: +1-646-536-9100
Email: info@claimscon.org
https://art.claimscon.org/

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