Berlin conference on dealing with cultural property confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution successfully concluded
Press release from 12/12/2008
After two days of intense discussion, the symposium "Verantwortung wahrnehmen / Taking responsibility", organised by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Coordination Office for the Loss of Cultural Property to mark the tenth anniversary of the "Washington Principles" and sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag, ended today. More than three hundred participants from all over the world - representatives of experts, politicians, heirs' lawyers and victims' representatives - came together in Berlin to take stock of the last few years and discuss future paths and possibilities for dealing with restitution issues.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, praised the extremely constructive atmosphere at the conference and the high quality of the presentations and contributions to the discussion. He emphasised that the public and experts are attaching increasing importance to the question of the provenance of works of art. Parzinger explained: "When it comes to 'fair and equitable' solutions, as formulated 10 years ago in Washington, then from the point of view of cultural institutions, a legal regulation is not necessarily the key to success." Rather, he demanded: "Provenance research must finally begin on an appropriate scale. The establishment of the Provenance Research Centre this year was an important step and starting point for broad-based research. However, the cultural institutions also need long-term support from their sponsors."
The publication of interim results of provenance research for works with unclear provenance is seen as a contribution to the required transparency. With regard to the Washington Principles, Parzinger considers it desirable to include representatives of the victims' side in the relevant committees and commissions in future, which was also called for by many of the conference participants.