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Plunder, Restitution, and International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2010

Wayne Sandholtz
Wayne Sandholtz
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, California 92697-5100. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Russian Federal Law on Cultural Valuables Displacedto the USSR as a Result of the Second World War and Located on the Territoryof the Russian Federation purports to establish the legal basisfor the Russian state to hold permanent title to the vast majority of thecultural valuables removed from Germany to the Soviet Union at the end of WorldWar II. Russia claims that the cultural objects seized by the Soviet Unionconstitute “compensatory restitution” for the hundreds ofthousands of cultural and artistic valuables seized or destroyed by the Nazisduring the war. This article assesses the compatibility of the Russian claimwith relevant international law. It does so by tracing the development of theinternational antiplunder legal regime. It then assesses the Russian claim withrespect to three categories of cultural valuables, based on prewar ownership:property belonging to private persons and organizations, property belonging tononenemy states, and property belonging to enemy states (Axis powers).“Compensatory restitution” does not exist as a category orprinciple in international law, so the analysis focuses on the legal conceptthat is most similar and therefore of potential relevance, restitution in kind.If restitution in kind is impermissible under international law, then thebroader “compensatory restitution” is, with even greaterforce, also impermissible. The key finding is that international law does notpermit “compensatory restitution,” nor does it permitunilateral seizures of cultural objects under some broader notion ofcompensation.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 17 , Issue 2: SPECIAL ISSUE: Spoils of War v. Cultural Heritage: The Russian CulturalProperty Law in Historical Context , May 2010 , pp. 147 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2010

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