Year in review: Art law in Netherlands

In January 2021, the Dutch government became the first in Europe to approve a central mechanism for repatriating colonial loot. One aspect of the new policy raises concerns given that artefacts that were looted from non-Dutch colonies will not automatically be repatriated.

They ‘may also be eligible for return’, but the assessment committee will ‘weigh the interests of the various parties’.

In practice, the weighing of interests usually turns out to be beneficial to the possessor of the artworks, thus adding insult to injury to the already frustrated claimants.

As a matter of principle, it could be argued that it is hard to justify the aforementioned distinction between claims in the context of Nazi-looted art on the one hand and claims regarding colonial art on the other.