61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

4.11 Cultural Assets: Flight, Dealing and Looting
Shortly after the start of the debate on unclaimed assets and the trade in Nazi
gold, the issue of the whereabouts of art looted by the National Socialists was
also raised. The question of looted art had already been part of the Swiss debate
in the aftermath of war. Paintings by famous artists represent within the sphere
of art treasures, what gold, with its mythological qualities, is to finance. The
Swiss Federal Council’s Decree of 19 December 1996 which set forth the details
of the ICE’s mandate, identified «dealings in works of art and jewellery, the
scope and relation of such trade to looted goods, and the degree of awareness as
to the origin of these assets» as a special area of investigation.
However, the initial studies of Switzerland’s significance as an international artdealing
centre during the Nazi period had a very narrow focus and examined
just one very specific event: the well-known auction of «degenerate art» which
was organised in June 1939 by Galerie Fischer in Lucerne. 1 Subsequent
individual transactions by its proprietor, Theodor Fischer, involving paintings
from Paul Rosenberg’s Paris collection, and the ensuing lawsuits after 1945
were central themes in Thomas Buomberger’s book, which was published in
1998 in response to this issue’s increasing topicality. This publication, which
also highlighted a number of other cases, was an important basis for the present
study. 2
Problems of definition: what are cultural assets, what is looting?
Whereas the majority of studies focus primarily on classical objets d’art, the most
recent publications on Holocaust victims’ assets in Switzerland treat art merely
as one variety of asset, entirely in line with the Federal Council’s Decree on
Looted Assets of 1945, which was eventually to lead to obtaining the return of
securities rather than to retrieving art per se. 3 Our investigations are based on a
broad definition of the term «cultural asset» which also includes, for example,
precious carpets and valuable household objects, coin and stamp collections,
diamonds etc. However, in light of the available records, we were forced to
restrict our research primarily to the better-documented incidents involving
paintings and graphic works. Jewellery – a fairly easily tradable looted asset due
to its high value compared with its mass/weight – should also be counted as
«looted art» (unlike mere precious stones) but, due to the poor sources available,
it too could be included only peripherally in our research. 4 Another important
category which, however, could not be dealt with here is musical instruments
and musical artefacts in the broadest sense (from sheets of music to gramophone
records). 5 Nonetheless, it was possible to include individual events relating to
looted books and original manuscripts. Many items of «looted art» are unique
347