U.S. Congress considers action on plundered artwork

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (JTA) — As the search for assets of Holocaust victims is broadening to include pillaged artworks and confiscated insurance policies, the U.S. Congress is taking a stand. The House Banking Committee was scheduled to hold hearings on Thursday to address the legal status of art objects seized by the Nazis and the insurance claims of Holocaust victims and their heirs. Taken together, the total value of those assets is likely to far exceed the value of the more publicized dormant Holocaust-era bank accounts and personal gold plundered by the Nazis, according to Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress. As the banking committee prepared to hold hearings, several members of Congress have either introduced or plan to offer new bills aimed at bringing justice to Holocaust victims. Among the legislative proposals: * Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, plans to introduce legislation regarding looted art. While declining to elaborate on the specifics of his proposal, he has said it will be a “comprehensive bill” that will have “international ramifications.” * Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) has introduced legislation that would force insurance companies to honor policies sold to Holocaust victims between 1920 and 1945. The Holocaust Victims Insurance Act would require European insurance companies to provide full accountings of how they handled such policies and direct them to pay victims or their descendants if they have not done so already. * Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) has introduced legislation that would prohibit European insurance companies and their American subsidiaries from conducting business in the United States unless they fully disclose how they handled Holocaust victims’ policies. Both houses of Congress have already passed legislation authorizing the United States to contribute up to $25 million to a new international fund to benefit Holocaust survivors. The Holocaust Victims Redress Act also calls on all governments to take action to ensure that artworks confiscated by the Nazis — or by the Soviets in the aftermath of World War II — be returned to their rightful owners. The Clinton administration, meanwhile, is in the process of developing a policy on stolen art and is planning to convene an international conference in Washington in June to focus on artworks, insurance policies, books and other property stolen from Holocaust victims. A document recently found in the U.S. National Archives showed that in 1945, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art estimated that the value of artwork plundered by the Nazis in Europe amounted to $2.5 billion in postwar prices — more than the value of all the art in the United States at that time. The WJC said the Nazis stole 100,000 pieces of art in France alone, 55,000 of which were never returned to their rightful owners. Responding to growing concerns that they may be displaying wartime plunder, the directors of the nation’s top art museums have agreed to check the ownership of their holdings to determine if any of their artworks were once looted by the Nazis. A 13-member task force formed by the Association of Art Museum Directors, which includes the heads of the 170 largest art museums in North America, is attempting to develop guidelines to resolve individual ownership claims.