Seized, Stored, Returned: Remedying Nazi Confiscations in the NGP Collections

How did artworks taken between 1938 and 1945 enter public collections - and what does their return mean today? This lecture offers a legal and historical perspective on one of the sensitive chapters in the history of the National Gallery Prague. It will examine the methods of Nazi confiscations, the sorting and storage of cultural property, and the specific practice of so-called gifts in exchange for export permits.

Through concrete examples, the lecture will show why some works were returned immediately after the war, others only in the 1990s or under the current restitution law No. 212/2000 Coll., and why some cases remain unresolved to this day. The lecture is aimed at a general audience and focuses on the stories of the artworks, their original owners, and the question of how historical injustices can be legally remedied.

Speaker: Zuzana Löbling is head of the legal department at the NGP and specializes in the restitution of looted art.