January 25, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 05, 1428

LONDON, Jan 24: Those in Pakistan who are trying now to reclaim the fabled Koh-i-Noor and other art masterpieces which are found in abundance in the British museums and its art galleries can now take heart from the UK government’s decision to return to the heirs of Dr Arthur Feldmann three drawings seized by the Gestapo in Czechoslovakia in 1939.

According to Culture Minister David Lammy, who announced the decision on Wednesday, the three drawings formed part of the Witt bequest of over 3,000 old master drawings which was made to the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, in 1952.The Courtauld Institute -- which had no idea that the works were stolen -- acquired independent legal status in 2002, giving it full legal title over the drawings. The drawings in question are: a lion, attributed to Carl Ruthart (1630-1703); a dog lying down, attributed to Frans Van Mieris the elder (1635-1681); and an architectural capriccio, attributed to Giuseppe Bibiena (1696-1756).

The claim to the panel was brought on behalf of the heirs to Dr Feldmann in 2006.

David Lammy said: "It is of the utmost importance that questions of ownership arising from the terrible events of the Second World War are resolved, and that proper amends are made to those who lost works of art at the hands of the Nazis.”

The minister said he was grateful to Sir David Hirst and members of the Spoliation Advisory Panel for producing yet another concise and well-researched report.

The panel concluded that there was firm evidence showing that the drawings were seized from Dr Feldmann's home by the Gestapo in March 1939. The drawings were then acquired at a Sotheby's auction on October 16, 1946 by Messrs Colnaghi and sold on the same day to Witt. It is not known who the vendor to Sotheby's was.

The panel recommended that the drawings should be returned to the claimants.

The Courtauld Institute of Art has announced that it will return two of the looted drawings in its collection to the heirs of Dr Arthur Feldmann. The third drawing, attributed to Frans Van Mieris the elder and acknowledged to have been looted, is to be presented to the Courtauld by Dr Feldmann's heirs.

The down-side of the story for the Pakistani claimants is that their claims do not fall under the purview of the Spoilation Advisory Panel which was set up on February 17, 2000 to help resolve claims on art looted during the Nazi era.

And the panel’s terms of reference were limited to the Declaration of Principles agreed at the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets of December 1998 states. The principles broadly said that pre-war owners and their heirs should be encouraged to come forward and make known their claims to art confiscated by the Nazis.