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Wednesday, May 17, 2000
Russia might return Nazi-looted valuables to the Czech Republic -- but proving rightful ownership will be a tough task By Suzanne Smalley Millions of dollars worth of gold, jewelry and works of art originally stolen from Czech Jews by the Nazis were pilfered a second time at the end of World War II by liberating Soviet troops. Russia first announced intentions to return the goods in December 1998. And last month the Duma, or lower house of the Russian parliament, passed a law specifying how requests for recompense should be made. The law awaits the signature of President Vladimir Putin. However, Prague hasn't received an answer to a Foreign Ministry request last fall for the return of almost 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of gold that have been documented as originally belonging to Czech Jews. And members of a Joint Working Commission, appointed by the Czech government in November 1998 to document what's missing, say they're not sure what the Russian law will give them. "We don't have enough information from Russia as to what the intentions are. Is it just art they will return or is it everything?" asked Jiri Sitler, the director of the Czech Foreign Ministry's Central European division and a member of the commission. "We know just what the media has told us," Sitler added. "But a report by our historians shows that there is no doubt." The report says that the Nazis used the Czech National Bank to store gold they took from Czech Jews. The Russians took that gold in 1945. Masterpieces in limbo Russia publicly committed to recompense in December 1998, when Moscow said it would cooperate in returning Holocaust-era art. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Prague said former fascist countries will not receive anything, but formerly occupied countries such as the Czech Republic will have 18 months to make a claim. But for the Czech commission, determining the rightful ownership of artwork that might have been looted from Czech galleries has been far more difficult than tracing the original owners of the gold. "With gold, it is clear that the Russians took it from the National Bank and Nazis took it from the Jews, but with art it is a completely different situation because it is much more anonymous and complicated to trace," said commission member Lubomir Slavicek, a professor at Masaryk University in Brno and an art historian. "It is quite clear that art dealers were complicit in the stealing of the art from the Jews," Slavicek said. "In Prague, there was a special Gestapo group that worked to document different Jewish valuables and houses. But the documentation this group made was destroyed before the end of the war." Michaela Hajkova, a curator at Prague's Jewish Museum, also expressed frustration with the documentation process. "Museums are trying to identify what they have in their holdings that may be stolen Jewish art," Hajkova said. "It involves profound archive research, and since we are missing much of the archive holdings, it has become very time-consuming work. ... But from my experience, the people looking at their holdings at different museums don't really know what they are looking for." The Jewish Museum has an interesting legacy: During the war, Czech Jews were able to give art, books and other precious objects to the museum for safekeeping. In 1938, Prague's Jewish Museum had a collection of 2,500 objects; by 1945, warehouses and synagogues throughout Prague were filled with almost 150,000 objects, which the museum still holds. The majority of those objects are books, according to the museum's historian, Arno Parik. About 30,000 of the valuables in question are precious metals. Most of the people who donated their belongings to the Jewish Museum ended up dying in Nazi death camps. Parik, said no one knows why the Nazis allowed the museum to thrive. But he speculates the Nazis may have been planning a museum dedicated to what was to be the "extinct race." "People saw it as the only way to save their valuables," Parik said. "They lost their ownership when they gave it to the Jewish community, but they wanted to make sure it was not lost forever so they gave anyway." Slavicek says that while the documentation process is not over, "there is no indication that paintings were taken by the Russians." But the commission is working on establishing the path of artwork once it fell into Nazi hands, said commission member and National Gallery archivist Vit Vlanas. "Our work is not to compute the stolen art or itemize each piece; it is about the fate of the major art collections," Vlanas said. "Our research is all about Nazi laws: how the anti-Jewish legislation worked. We are studying the ways they transferred art from Moravia to the art houses of Munich and Vienna. We do not know concrete details." Vlanas is quick to admit the commission's work cuts both ways. The Czech Republic has conceded it might own stolen art and is researching the rightful owners of several pieces hanging in its own museums. Determining ownership difficult "Pictures stolen from the Jews are still hanging in the National Gallery," Vlanas said. "For instance, a Rembrandt school painting called 'Man With a Fur Cap' that was originally part of the Schloss collection in Paris and ended up in Prague in the National Gallery is now being disputed." This painting seems to summarize the difficulties in sorting out artwork. "There are several similar paintings in galleries all over the world," Sitler said. "The French have asked us for it. But there are two problems. We are not sure if this is the right painting. And even if it is, why should we give it to the French government and not the family in question?" Daniela Marsalkova, an art historian with the Czech Ministry of Culture's museums and galleries division, is helping to prepare a list of paintings and art objects that belonged to people who died in the Holocaust. The list will be published during the second half of this year on a special Web site the Ministry of Culture is constructing. Marsalkova said 2,000 pictures, 10 sculptures and 2,000 prints appear on the list thus far. She also said this initial list is the result of the first of three phases. It will take as long as two years to finish the search, according to Tomas Kraus, head of the Czech Republic's Federation of Jewish Communities and a member of the commission. He said the first phase of the search has proven that as many as 2,500 objects belonging to Czech Jews hang in the National Gallery alone. Marsalkova admitted the archives have long contained proof that some of the objects in question originated with Jews. "These are works that the State Institution had documented the origins of," she said. They were restituted in the early 1990s, she said. "Most probably what is left belongs to those who have died," she added. Related story: German family says Albright's father took paintings Suzanne Smalley's e-mail address is ssmalley@praguepost.cz
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