Expert Opinion - Nazi Looted Art

Chapter 4
36
Safekeeping of the Hess Collection
in Switzerland for a Limited Time Period.
I.
Preliminary Remarks.
Various articles on the Kirchner/Hess collection are unanimous in the assumption
that: ”Thekla Hess was able to rescue the collection by sending it to Switzerland in
1933.” Not clarified and still unexplained is why sending the collection to Switzerland
was only possible for a limited time and why it was necessary to return it to the
German Reich during the Nazi era. The following legal explanations, based on an
actual parallel case involving the Kunsthaus Zurich from 1936 to 1938, documents
the actual and legal treatment of foreign art collections in Switzerland.
II.
Summary of Highlights
of the Following Determination of Facts
- Based on the intensified regulations in the Foreign Exchange Act an export
declaration had to be prepared for exporting works of art. According to the
regulations on the flight of capital in the Foreign Exchange Act such works
became subject to export tax.
- The export prohibition/export tax regulations of the Foreign Exchange Act
and the so-called Reich escape tax could only be circumvented temporarily
through the shipment of artworks as loans for exhibition purposes.
- The final importation of an art collection into Switzerland would have required
Thekla Hess to pay import duty in Swiss francs, thus foreign exchange.
- The transfer of the art collection could be free of levies and taxes provided it
was only sent for a limited time period for exhibition purposes.
- According to Swiss law, the storage of imported works of art was exempted
from customs duties and other levies by a free pass limited however only to
the exhibition period. The sponsors of the exhibition, in this case the
Kunstverein in Basel and the Kunsthaus Zurich, were liable for adhering to
the regulations.
- Only as an exception was it possible to get from Swiss authorities an
extension of the free pass for a limited storage period following the
exhibition.
- If artworks were sold in Switzerland, the payment of customs duty, initially
deferred, became due and payable in Swiss francs.