O restitucích kulturních statků obětí holokaustu
The Restitution of Cultural Property of Victims of the Shoah

Summary/Abstract: A conference called 'The Lost Heritage of Cultural Assets: Documentation, Identification, Restitution, and Repatriation of Cultural Assets of Victims of the Second World War' was held in the Museum of Decorative Arts, Brno, in November 2003. It was organized by the Centre for the Documentation of Property Transfers of the Cultural Assets of Victims of the Second World War, which is part of the Institute of Contemporary History, Prague. The author of the current report describes the work of the Centre and the proceedings of the conference. In connection with the extensive international initiative for the restitution of Nazi-confiscated artwork to their original owners or owners' heirs, which was developed in the 1990s and which the Czech Republic took part in, the Centre was established at the initiative of a government commission. Its activity consists primarily in the gathering, analysis, and synthesis of information for the needs of state institutions and NGOs, and also for tracking down missing art. Additional informa¬tion about the Centre is available on their website: www.centrum.usd.cas. The Brno conference was attended by representatives of state institutions and NGOs from a number of countries, as well as by historians, lawyers, politicians, representatives of Jewish communities, auction houses, civil servants, archivists, art historians, and journalists. The author of the report gives brief summaries of all the papers given there and of the most important comments during the discussions, which were heard in the following four panels. The first panel was concerned with research methods and approaches to work, as well as a comparison of research in various countries. The second panel discussed restitution procedures in individual countries. The third examined international collaboration in tracking down works of art, and discussed means of communication and information exchange amongst the individual centres. The fourth panel was concerned with procedure

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