Trophy art: Russia to relent?

At least we're getting some discussion, in contrast to all those years when Russia wouldn't even admit to having the stuff:

Russia will return so-called trophy art taken from Nazi Germany during World War II only on a case-by-case basis, an official said Friday, arguing that most of the cultural treasures Moscow retains were seized as compensation for huge Soviet wartime damage. . .

Germany and other countries have pressed for the return of the collections, which they argue were taken illegally.

I'm not up on relevant international law, but the Nazis' deliberate targeting of Slavic cultural properties certainly lends weight to the Russians' claims for compensation. And where the losses are priceless, isn't compensation in kind appropriate?

A Russian law that went into effect in 2000 distinguishes between illegal trophies - taken without a military commander's sanction - and those Moscow sees as restitution for the 27 million Soviet lives lost, 100 museums destroyed and utter ruin of entire cities during the conflict it calls the Great Patriotic War.

The problem here, however, is that Russia appears to be going beyond like-kind compensation, of cultural properties for cultural losses. In any event, German claimants will have some pretty high hurdles to surmount, even as the policy towards other nationalities eases.

"We are prepared to satisfy claims for objects that were taken as trophies, and also if they belonged to Holocaust victims or governments that suffered from (German) occupation," Vilkov said at a news conference.

From the Guardian.

Posted by David on February 12, 2005 11:38 AM