The Swiss government has appointed Simonetta Sommaruga, who has twice served as the country’s president, to head a new independent panel to evaluate claims for art wrongfully acquired during the Nazi era. The panel will also assess claims for cultural heritage that changed hands in a colonial context.
The new Commission for Historically Problematic Cultural Heritage starts work on 1 March, more than 27 years after Switzerland endorsed the Washington Principles on Nazi-looted art. Under these principles, governments agreed to encourage museums to conduct provenance research, identify art seized by the Nazis and seek “just and fair solutions” with the original Jewish collectors and their heirs for works lost due to persecution. They also agreed to establish “alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for resolving ownership issues”.
“Finally, Switzerland has a commission,” says Andrea Raschèr, an independent consultant who ran the department of legal and international affairs at the Swiss culture ministry from 1995 to 2006. “After more than 25 years of debate and delay, we have moved beyond words and into action. This commission is not just a technical body; it is a commitment to historical integrity and a long-awaited bridge to justice for those whose heritage was stolen.”
Switzerland served as a hub for Nazi-looted art before, during and after the Second World War. Since 2014, when the Kunstmuseum in Bern inherited Cornelius Gurlitt’s controversial art collection—assembled by his father, an art dealer for the Nazis—awareness has grown that Switzerland lacks national structures to address claims. An uproar over the troubled Bührle collection on loan to Zurich’s Kunsthaus has cemented perceptions that Switzerland needs to do more to address its legacy of profiting from the Nazi persecution of Jewish art collectors. The collector Emil Bührle made a fortune selling anti-aircraft cannons to both the Allies and Nazi Germany, benefited from slave labour and is known to have purchased Nazi-looted art.
The new commission’s recommendations are non-binding. It can be called upon by individuals or organisations. The current holder of a contested work must also agree to have a claim assessed, with the important exception of Nazi loot claims for art in publicly funded museums: in such cases, the museum’s approval is not needed for a claim to be evaluated.
The commission is financed by the Swiss interior ministry and consists of ten members, including Sommaruga. The newly appointed vice president, Felix Uhlmann, has stepped back from his position as the head of the Kunstmuseum Basel’s art commission because, the museum said in a release, the two roles are not compatible. Other members include Marc-André Renold, a lawyer specialised in art and heritage law, Nikola Doll and Esther Tisa, both experienced provenance researchers, and Henri-Michel Yéré, the director of the Jewish Museum in Hohenems in Austria.
Switzerland is one of 44 countries and organisations that endorsed the Washington Principles in 1998. France, Germany, the UK, Austria and the Netherlands all set up panels to adjudicate claims for art lost as a result of Nazi persecution more than 20 years ago.
The formation of the Swiss panel is the conclusion of a 2021 motion launched by Jon Pult, a Social Democrat member of parliament. “With this, Switzerland will make its contribution to addressing a dark chapter of history and taking its responsibility in the handling of cultural property forfeited due to Nazi persecution,” he said.
