The Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste (English: "Coordination Center for Lost Cultural Assets"), also known as the ''Koordinierungsstelle

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

'' (English: "Magdeburg Coordination Center"), is an institution of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

federal and state governments at the

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

Ministry of Culture and is the central German institution for the documentation of lost and found cultural assets looted by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. Established in 2001, the Koordinierungsstelle's ''Lost Art Database'' documents and publishes lost and found reports by institutions and private individuals. It operates on a cooperative basis with the international

Art Loss Register Art Loss Register (ALR) is the world's largest database of stolen art. A computerized international database that captures information about lost and stolen art, antiques, and collectibles, the ALR is a London-based, independent, for-profit corpor ...

History

The Koordinierungsstelle was first established in 1994 in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

as an institution for the German states to document the institutional losses of cultural goods during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The center thereby took over an operation that was carried out by German Ministry of the Interior since the 1950s. Originally they dealt with artworks left behind during the flight and expulsion of ethnic Germans between 1944 and 1950. Only after 1990 was

looted art Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unet ...

, defined as cultural goods seized illegally by German authorities during National Socialism, included in the Center's documentation. In 1998, the Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste moved to Magdeburg with newly extended responsibilities and financed half by the German Federal Government and half by all of the state governments. It is an official central German institution, whose administrative and technical supervision is in the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Culture. Since 2010 its official name is ''Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg - Eine Einrichtung des Bundes und der Länder für Kulturgutdokumentation und Kulturgutverluste beim Kultusministerium des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt'' (English: "The Magdeburg Coordination Center - An institution of the federal and state governments for cultural documentation and lost cultural assets of the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Culture").

Tasks

Its main task is, in accordance with the requirements of the 1998

Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art The Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, formally the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and sometimes referred to as the Washington Declaration is a statement concerning the restitution of art confiscated by the Na ...

and the 1999 German "general declaration," to document international lost and found registrations relating to cultural goods seized by the Nazis (''Raubgut'' or "stolen art") as well cultural objects taken in the war (''Beutegut'' or "looted art"). This task has been carried out since 2001 on the searchable ''Lost Art Database'', which is accessible at no cost on the internet. The stated aim of the ''Lost Art Database'' is:

To record cultural property that went missing from public institutions or private individuals and institutions as a result of the Nazi rule and the Second World War by publicizing it on the Lost Art Internet Database for worldwide search availability. Owners or managers of cultural assets with uncertain or incomplete provenances can research here to determine if someone else is looking for these items.

The Koordinierungsstelle has a comprehensive set of policy instruments for public relations, such as organizing professional and educational events, publishing a series of scholarly books, providing checklists for

provenance research Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

, and operating an advisory commission in connection with the return of Nazi-looted art. It offers a website that is, on the one hand, the world's largest database for documenting objects of Nazi-looted art, and on the other hand providing an extensive information portal on these issues. Furthermore, the Koordinierungsstelle is responsible for the electronic version of the German national inventory of valuable cultural property according to Paragraph 2 Subsection 2 of the German cultural assets protection law.

Critical reception

The ''Lost Art Database'' has been criticized in the press for publishing photographs of the paintings seized in 2012 from Cornelius Gurlitt, stating that the legal basis for publishing images of a private citizen's personal property without their express permission is a violation of their privacy. The fact that the ''Lost Art Database'' posts information about looted art on its website without actively researching its provenance has led to criticism in the press, in that it puts "the burden of identifying stolen paintings in private collections... on aging

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivors and their relatives." The Berlin political scientist Sebastian Neubauer registered a painting by

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engraving ...

on the ''Lost Art Database'' in 2009 that he is sure was stolen by his father in

German-occupied France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

. Neubauer was reportedly told by a Koordinierungsstelle staff member that "if nobody responds, then he can be happy and keep the painting." Neubauer responded in the ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

'', Germany's largest daily newspaper, that "there is apparently no competent contact partners and no institutional support for the private restitution of art in this country (Germany)."

Future developments

In October 2014 the

German Federal Government The Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (german: link=no, Bundeskabinett or ') is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Federal Chancellor and cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's or ...

announced the reformation of the Koordinierungsstelle's ''Lost Art Database'' into a new foundation called the ''Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste'' (English: "German Center for Lost Cultural Assets"), which will put the ''Lost Art Database'', the '' Arbeitsstelle für Provenienzforschung'' (English: "Center for Provenance Research") in Berlin, the Taskforce of the Munich artworks discovery, and the Research Center for

Degenerate Art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

of the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

under one roof. The stated goal of this reformation is to promote the active research and restitution of Nazi-looted cultural assets. The general reception of this announcement in the press was skeptical, with the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'', a major German daily newspaper, commenting: "It shouldn't be about creating new positions in a new place for officials who thus far haven't been doing their job."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
', ''Wann gibt es endlich Resultate?'' (in German) by

Stefan Koldehoff Stefan Koldehoff (born 27 October 1967) is a German journalist, art market expert and non-fiction author. He became known through numerous publications and his work as culture editor of the Deutschlandfunk. Life Born in Wuppertal, Koldehoff gra ...

(English: "When where there finally be results?") 9. October 2014.

References

External links