2RHPZ
02-14-2005, 01:39 AM
Russia Will Consider Return of WWII Art
By JUDITH INGRAM
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) -- 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.
Anatoly Vilkov, deputy chief of the Russian government agency that preserves the nation's cultural legacy, said Russia held some 249,000 art objects, more than 260,000 archive files and 1.25 million books and publications seized as compensation.
Germany and other countries have pressed for the return of the collections, which they argue were taken illegally.
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.
Since 2000, Russia has satisfied six claims, for four archive and two art collections, said Vilkov.
Just one of those claims came from Germany, to which Russia returned a set of stained-glass windows from a church. The others were from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ukraine - none of them Nazi allies.
In addition to those countries, Hungary, Austria, Poland, the United States, Great Britain and Greece have lodged claims against Russia.
"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.
Vilkov said Moscow and Budapest were close to agreement on the return of a 134-volume religious school library collection from the eastern Hungarian town of Sarospatak, which had been deposited in Budapest bank vaults during the war.
Before concluding the deal, Russia is awaiting confirmation that Hungary is legally allowed to return any Russian cultural treasures that may have ended up in the Central European country, he said.
As to objects that Russian courts have ruled legitimate Russian state property, "they can be returned to Germany only on the basis of an adequate exchange and the passage of a special international agreement," Vilkov said.
"So if for example, Germany calls for the return of the Schliemann gold, (we'll reply) 'No, you propose what would be an equal exchange,'" Vilkov said, referring to a legendary trove of gold objects excavated from Troy by a German archaeologist and once displayed in Berlin.
"Of course they won't find anything, but that's the only way it can be returned," he said, chuckling.
This year's celebration of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany is likely to rekindle international debates over the fate of the trophy art, much of which has been hidden from the public view for nearly 60 years in state museum storehouses.
Link (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_TROPHY_ART?SITE=TNNPT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
By JUDITH INGRAM
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) -- 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.
Anatoly Vilkov, deputy chief of the Russian government agency that preserves the nation's cultural legacy, said Russia held some 249,000 art objects, more than 260,000 archive files and 1.25 million books and publications seized as compensation.
Germany and other countries have pressed for the return of the collections, which they argue were taken illegally.
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.
Since 2000, Russia has satisfied six claims, for four archive and two art collections, said Vilkov.
Just one of those claims came from Germany, to which Russia returned a set of stained-glass windows from a church. The others were from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ukraine - none of them Nazi allies.
In addition to those countries, Hungary, Austria, Poland, the United States, Great Britain and Greece have lodged claims against Russia.
"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.
Vilkov said Moscow and Budapest were close to agreement on the return of a 134-volume religious school library collection from the eastern Hungarian town of Sarospatak, which had been deposited in Budapest bank vaults during the war.
Before concluding the deal, Russia is awaiting confirmation that Hungary is legally allowed to return any Russian cultural treasures that may have ended up in the Central European country, he said.
As to objects that Russian courts have ruled legitimate Russian state property, "they can be returned to Germany only on the basis of an adequate exchange and the passage of a special international agreement," Vilkov said.
"So if for example, Germany calls for the return of the Schliemann gold, (we'll reply) 'No, you propose what would be an equal exchange,'" Vilkov said, referring to a legendary trove of gold objects excavated from Troy by a German archaeologist and once displayed in Berlin.
"Of course they won't find anything, but that's the only way it can be returned," he said, chuckling.
This year's celebration of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany is likely to rekindle international debates over the fate of the trophy art, much of which has been hidden from the public view for nearly 60 years in state museum storehouses.
Link (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_TROPHY_ART?SITE=TNNPT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)