Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009

The Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009 (c. 16) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to confer, on certain national institutions, a power that was already possessed by other museums to return to their rightful owners cultural objects unlawfully acquired during the Nazi era.^[4] It was introduced into Parliament as the Holocaust (Stolen Art) Restitution Bill.^[5] The Bill was amended to give it a different short title.

Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009^[1]

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to confer power to return certain cultural objects on grounds relating to events occurring during the Nazi era.
Citation	2009 c. 16
Introduced by	Andrew Dismore[2] (Commons) Lord Janner of Braunstone (Lords)
Territorial extent	England and Wales and Scotland[3]
Dates
Royal assent	12 November 2009
Other legislation
Amended by	Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) (Amendment) Act 2019
Status: Amended
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

Sections 1 to 3

These sections came into force on 13 January 2010.^[6]

Section 1 provides that the Act applies to:

• The Board of Trustees of the Armouries
• The British Library Board
• The Trustees of the British Museum
• The Trustees of the Imperial War Museum
• The Board of Trustees for the National Galleries of Scotland
• The Board of Trustees of the National Gallery
• The Trustees of the National Library of Scotland
• The Trustees of the National Maritime Museum
• The Board of Trustees of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside
• The Board of Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland
• The Board of Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery
• The Trustees of the Natural History Museum
• The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
• The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery
• The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum
• The Board of Trustees of the Wallace Collection

Section 2 authorises those bodies to transfer objects from their collections if the Advisory Panel has recommended that transfer and the Secretary of State has approved that recommendation. (The bodies in question were previously prohibited by statute from doing this).^[7]

Section 3 defines the expression "Advisory Panel". The explanatory notes to the Act said that the Government intended to designate the Spoliation Advisory Panel as the Advisory Panel for the purpose of this Act.^[8] That body, created in 2000 as a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, retained its designation under the 2009 Act after it was reconstituted in April 2010 as an expert group (under the same name).

Section 4 – Short title, extent, commencement and sunset

This section came into force on 12 November 2009.^[9]

Section 4(1) authorises the citation of this Act by a short title.

Section 4(3) confers a power on the Secretary of State to appoint the day on which sections 1 to 3 of the Act come into force. This power was fully exercised by the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009 (Commencement) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/50 (C.8)).

Section 4(7) was a sunset clause. It provided that the Act would have expired at the end of the period of ten years which began on the day it was passed. This clause was repealed under the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) (Amendment) Act 2019.

Application

The Advisory Panel established by the Act has considered twenty-two claims for the restitution of artefacts and objects.^[10] Despite its numerous recommendations, only one object has been returned as a result.^[11] This is because the Advisory Panel is a non-binding institution and museums do not have to follow their recommendations. The claims were:

Institution	Claimant	Object of the request	Date	Advisory Panel's recommendation	Institution decision	Source
Ashmolean Museum	Jakob Goldschmidt's heirs	Painting	2006	Rejected		[12]
Ashmolean Museum	Unknown	Renaissance salt	2014	Approved	Rejected	[13]
Ashmolean Museum	Gerta Silberberg's estate	Gothic relief in ivory	2016	Rejected		[14]
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery	Margraf & Co GmbH	Oil painting	2015	Rejected		[15]
British Library	Unknown	Biccherna Panel (wooden tablet)	2014	Approved	Rejected	[16]
British Library	Metropolitan Chapter of the Cathedral City of Benevento (southern Italy)	Beneventan missal (renewed claim)	2010	Approved	Rejected	[17]
British Library	Unknown	Beneventan missal	2005	Approved	Rejected	[18]
British Museum	Unknown	14 clocks and watches	2012	Rejected		[19]
British Museum	Dr Arthur Feldmann's heirs	Four drawings	2006	Rejected		[20]
British Museum	Mrs Bertha L. Gutmann of Caldwell (Heinrich Rothberger's niece and heir)	Porcelain	2008	Approved	Rejected	[21]
Burrell Collection	Unknown	Tapestry fragment	2014	Rejected		[22]
Burrell Collection	Unknown	Painting	2004	Approved	Rejected	[23]
Cecil Higgins Art Gallery	Mrs Budge's estate	Four Nymphenburg figures	2014	Approved	Rejected	[24]
Courtauld Institute of Art	Herbert Gutmann's descendants	Oil sketch	2010	Rejected		[25]
Courtauld Institute of Art	Dr Curt Glaser's estate	Eight drawings	2009	Rejected		[26]
Courtauld Institute of Art	Granddaughter of Franz W. Koenigs of the Netherlands	3 paintings	2007	Rejected		[27]
Courtauld Institute of Art	Dr Arthur Feldmann's heirs	Three drawings	2007	Rejected		[28]
Fitzwilliam Museum	Mrs Bertha L. Gutmann of Caldwell	Porcelain	2008	Rejected		[29]
Tate Galleries	Victim's descendant (unknown)	Painting by Jan Griffier the Elder titled A View of Hampton Court Palace	2001	Rejected		[30]
Tate Galleries	Unknown	Constable painting	2014	Approved	Rejected	[31]
Tate Galleries	Baron Hatvany's estate	Oil painting by John Constable titled Beaching a Boat, Brighton	2015	Approved	Rejected	[32]
Victoria and Albert Museum	Emma Budge's estate	Three Meissen figures	2015	Approved	Approved	[33]