This is regarding the article by Howard Reich on the return of property of Holocaust victims in the Czech Republic. As I am the only representative of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic mentioned in the article, “Czechs to keep art taken by Nazis; Lyons heir denied pieces declared national treasures” (Page 1, March 22), I feel obliged to clarify the situation.
The poverty of our country was mentioned a couple of times in the article. Although the Czech Republic definitely does not rank among the richest in the world, its GDP, at $15,086 per year per capita, does not indicate that it is one of the poor or developing Third World countries. It is not true that the items of the Jewish Museum will possibly be returned. The policy deals only with state-owned collections.
It is not true that items in Emil Freund’s collection were proclaimed “national treasures.” Some of them were proclaimed “listed monuments,” a term of rather substantial difference from the definition of “national treasures.” Fifteen, not 14, items were listed in this way.
The proclamation by no means casts doubt on the right of ownership, only limiting it in certain respects.
Items proclaimed “listed monuments” will be returned to the victims of the Holocaust. Based on the selection by the National Gallery, the ministry proclaimed part of the collection a “cultural heritage” in February. In this way, a possible request for the export of the collection might be assessed and reviewed. It would undoubtedly be proposed that the proclaimed items be again listed as “listed monuments.” It should be noted that selected categories of cultural items are allowed to be exported from the Czech Republic provided that they are accompanied by an export license.
Reich stated that in the restitution of the Waldes collection, the state bought back 15 paintings by Frantisek Kupka for $34,000. The truth is that the state bought 23 paintings in total from Jiri Waldes (only those by Czech artists, nine of them being Kupkas) for a total price $3,370,000. In the case of the Kupkas, this represented an average price of $296,000 per item. Since Reich stated that the price on the world market has been $150,000, then the Czech state paid almost double to the former owner.
The Ministry of Culture is also willing to negotiate the possible purchase of selected works from Freund’s collection with the new owners, should they wish to do so.
The Czech government opted for the direct restitution of confiscated and looted property and items. This process begun after World War II but stopped after 1948, with the advent of the communist government.
After the overthrow of communism in 1989, tens of thousands of objects confiscated in 1948 were returned. Some of them were confiscated during the war and then again in 1948.
Now, at the beginning of the new century, objects confiscated by the Nazis are being returned. These are objects that had never been returned to their original owners because no one knew about them. Contrary to other countries, the Czech government is searching for such objects within government-owned collections and has published a list of these items so that their original owners or their heirs can request their return. Also objects proclaimed “listed monuments” will be returned in this way. An article like this will not undermine the good will of the restitution policy.
