Washington, DC, USA
– November 8, 2013 - The Holocaust Art Restitution Project ( HARP), based in
Washington, DC, chaired by Ori Z. Soltes, has called on the German Government
to immediately publish a full, detailed and complete inventory of the Cornelius
Gurlitt art collection, and to set up a Commission to hasten the restitution
process of Nazi-looted artworks to Holocaust victims and their heirs.
Following the
disclosure by the weekly magazine Focus that the German Government has been in
control of the Cornelius Gurlitt collection for several years, HARP, through
its legal counsel, sent a letter to the German Ministry of Finance, Wolfgang
Schäuble, calling on the German Government to immediately disclose a full,
complete, and detailed inventory of this collection, and to establish a
Commission to hasten the process of identification and restitution of any
Nazi-looted artwork found in this collection.
“Any delay in implementing these steps
would constitute grave injury to both the art market which requires that full
and complete diligence be performed on any transaction, and to Holocaust
survivors who have been looking for their artworks since 1945,” the letter
states, which was also shared with Reinhard Nemetz, the Head of Augsburg State
Prosecutor’s Office in charge of investigating Cornelius Gurlitt.
HARP is a
not-for-profit group based in Washington, DC, and chaired by Ori Z. Soltes,
dedicated to the identification and restitution of looted artworks require
detailed research and analysis of public and private archives in North America.
HARP has worked for 16 years on the restitution of artworks looted by the Nazi
regime. HARP was notably involved
in the "Portrait of Wally" case, where a Schiele painting was seized
by the U.S. Government, as well as in the restitution of an “Odalisque”, a
painting by Henri Matisse, to the Rosenberg family.
HARP is advised and
represented by the Ciric Law Firm Firm, PLLC in New York, USA.
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