Photo: Felix Hörhager/dpa/picture-alliance
A high-profile scandal has erupted in Germany over the return of cultural property stolen by the Nazis from Jewish collectors during World War II. This was reported by Israeli journalist Alexei Zheleznov linking to a YouTube channel New Times from Germany.
At the centre of the scandal are the Bavarian State Art Collections and their director, Bernhard Maatz, who has already been dismissed. The reason for this is the delay in the process of returning works of art to the rightful heirs of Jewish owners.
According to representatives of the Jewish community, museums have been keeping works of known provenance for years and are in no hurry to return them to Holocaust survivor families.
The head of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, spoke particularly sharply. She reminded us that 80 years have passed since the fall of Nazism and 25 years since the signing of the 1998 Washington Declaration, which obliged Germany to thoroughly check museum collections and return items confiscated by the Nazis to their rightful owners.
Despite official commitments and public promises, these processes seem to have been deliberately slowed down in Bavaria.
The museum categorically denies all the accusations, but Maatz has already been dismissed and transferred to the Central Institute of Art History.
This story exacerbated a long-standing problem for Germany: the return of cultural property looted during the Third Reich to Jews remains not only a legal issue, but also an element of historical responsibility to the victims of Nazi policy.
