-Or
(
IDC
HERZLIYA
government and museum officials from
44 nations who adopted 11 non-binding
principles for handling restitution cases.
Several governments created new restitu-
tion commissions, and some waived the
statute of limitations that restricted legal
efforts to regain stolen artwork.
Some years later, representatives of 46
governments agreed that cases of stolen
artwork should be judged "based on the
facts and merits of claims, not technical
issues such as the statute of limitations"
Spiegler explained. However, many pri-
vately owned American museums were
not as receptive to restitution claims as
public European museums.
Herrick Feinstein, Spiegler's firm,
has helped the descendants of Jacques
Goudstikker locate and recover 40 of the
artworks he lost during the Holocaust.
Goudstikker, a well-known, third-
generation art dealer in Amsterdam, had
shipped several paintings to England,
sent some money to New York City and
obtained visas for his wife, baby son and
himself to flee to the U.S. before the Nazi
attack on Holland in May 1940.
Unfortunately, the manager he put in
charge of his estate died the day before
they fled from Amsterdam. Soon after-
ward, the Nazis arranged a forced sale of
their gallery collection.
"The price was a pittance compared to
their real value," Spiegler said.
Goudstikker died in an accident on
a boat to England, but his wife and son
made it to Canada and eventually the
U.S. After the war, his widow attempted
to track down the collection with the
help of a small notebook of Goudstikker's
that listed 1,300 artworks. The Dutch
government held 200 artworks, and she
unsuccessfully sought their return, which
was supported by a Dutch restitution
commission. She died in 1996, but it was
not until 2006 that the Dutch govern-
ment returned the artworks to her heirs.
Among the well-known works
regained by the family are four charcoal
drawings of dancers by Degas, which
were donated to the Israel Museum.
Others were part of a special exhibit at
the Jewish Museum in New York in 2009.
Spiegler believes that the Nazi looting
of Jewish-owned artwork was part of the
Final Solution — that the Nazis sought to
"eradicate not only a race but a culture"
He quotes Heinrich Himmler as saying,
"We have to kill all the Jews because
otherwise their grandchildren will ask for
their property"
Gail Whitty of Birmingham said,
"Before the talk, the information about
Nazi looted art was in the periphery
of my consciousness. Mr. Spiegler's
talk brought the facts forward and, as
an added bonus, supplied the details of
the legal case of which he is a central
figure. It was fascinating to hear the life
story of the heir of the gallery owner:'
❑
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