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Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill

My Lords, I am pleased, if somewhat humbled, to represent the Government on this Private Member’s Bill, and to follow what has been an august range of speakers, all of whom have demonstrated their personal interest in many instances. Speaking personally, listening to some of the personal passion and commitment has been an experience in understanding the reality of the work of the Spoliation Advisory Panel, and the case and need for permissive legislation. I echo the earlier comments of another noble Lord about the power of the particular points made by my noble friend Lord Strabolgi. There were some powerful reminders, particularly from the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, that an essential element of the enjoyment of art is informed by the knowledge of its provenance involved in the act of observation. That should be borne in mind by the institution as well as the participants. This whole debate has reminded me of the importance of restitution, of perseverance on issues that people care about, and the mechanisms that acknowledge the morality, as well as the legality, of claims. As an aside, it is also, in procedural terms, a shining example of the power of a Private Member’s Bill to make a real difference. Andrew Dismore deserves both thanks and admiration for what my honourable friend in another place described as his "sleepover technique" in securing a Private Member’s Bill. The Government have offered our strong support to the Bill in the other place, and have worked closely with the honourable Member for Hendon, who introduced it, to ensure that it both matched the Government’s own policy objectives in this area and was in good shape for debate and consideration by this House. I am doubly pleased and personally honoured that the Bill has been taken up by my noble friend Lord Janner, who is so knowledgeable on these issues and who has campaigned for so many years for the restitution of property belonging to Holocaust victims. Indeed, he was instrumental in arranging the Nazi-looted gold conference that took place in London in 1997. As the noble Lord mentioned in his opening speech, he has only recently returned from the Conference on Holocaust Era Assets in the Czech Republic, where he delivered a powerful statement on his personal involvement in this work and the efforts that have been made internationally to address the restitution of Holocaust-era assets. The outcome of the conference was the Terezin declaration, supported by 46 countries, which seeks, among other things, to further efforts to bring about the restitution of Jewish cultural property lost during the Nazi era. That is, of course, highly relevant to our debate today. If any further evidence of the commitment of the noble Lord, Lord Janner, were needed, I am aware that he has regrettably had to cancel an important birthday celebration—I am not sure which number it is, or that he would thank me for mentioning it even if I was—in order to be here today. I hope the House will take note of that and join me in wishing him many happy returns for tomorrow. Setting to rights the terrible crimes committed during the Second World War is just as important for us today—perhaps even more so—as it was following the defeat of the Axis powers in the 1940s. The widespread and systematic seizure of cultural property in territories occupied by or under the control of the Nazis and their allies has been recognised in international declarations—the latest as recently as last week, as I have just said—as warranting particular recognition and deserving of special treatment for more than half a century. The 1943 Inter-allied Declaration, for example, signed by 16 countries, including the United Kingdom, resulted in a commitment by those states to do all in their power to defeat the methods of dispossession in territory under enemy occupation or control. At the 1998 Washington conference on Holocaust-era assets, 44 states, including all EU member states, adopted non-binding principles to assist in resolving issues relating to Nazi confiscated art, and the Vilnius Forum Declaration in 2000 asked all Governments to undertake every reasonable effort to achieve restitution of cultural assets looted during the Holocaust era to their original owners. Compared with many other European countries, the recovery of looted art has not been a major problem in numerical terms in the United Kingdom. Unlike the Netherlands or France, for example, where many hundreds of works of art have been returned to claimants over the years, very few looted paintings and other cultural objects have been uncovered in UK museums. Indeed, the Spoliation Advisory Panel, established in 2000 to provide advice to claimants and institutions on what might be appropriate solutions, has considered only nine cases in the nine years it has been operational. The honourable Member for Hendon said in the other place that there were a possible further 20 cases in the pipeline. Indeed, this was referred to by two noble Lords today. I do not know what knowledge the noble Lord, Lord Janner, has of these but the Government—and I think that I can speak for the Spoliation Advisory Panel on this point—would certainly find it helpful to know more about these potential claims, if for no other reason than to be able to plan and prepare for the work. However, this debate and this legislation are not determined by the scale of the problem or the number of applications. As several noble Lords have said, it is about recognising an overwhelming moral imperative to ensure that, where the Spoliation Advisory Panel finds that it would be appropriate for a museum to return a lost item, it is able to do so. That can only be right and I am sure nobody would argue against that. As regards what the Bill seeks to do, there are currently inconsistencies in how claims made to the panel are resolved. In the case of the national museums listed in the Bill, primary legislation prevents the trustees removing an item from the permanent collection in this way and, when the panel recommends the return of an item, claimants are offered an ex gratia payment instead. However, university museums and those run by local authorities are not prevented by similar express statutory restrictions from so returning an item. As the noble Lord, Lord Janner, highlighted, a good example of how this inconsistency can arise was demonstrated recently in the Spoliation Advisory Panel’s eighth report on a claim presented by the same claimant for two pieces of porcelain, one in the British Museum and the other in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The panel found in favour of the claimant and recommended that the item in the Fitzwilliam, which is not subject to a statutory restriction on the disposal of objects in the collection, be returned to them and that they receive an ex gratia payment for the item in the British Museum, which is currently prohibited by statute from returning such an object. While, throughout the history of the panel, claimants have generally been content to receive an ex gratia payment, the Government believe that museums should not be prevented by statute from deciding to return an object following the recommendation of the panel. In its seventh report in 2000, the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport, stated: ""We consider that the case for special treatment of alleged wrongful taking during the period 1933 to 1945 has been convincingly established"—" I believe that point was echoed by the noble Earl, Lord Attlee— ""It is appropriate that the Spoliation Advisory Panel has been created to ascertain the facts of individual cases and to recommend an outcome for claims which are upheld. While there are merits to a solution which secures continuing public access to an object in a museum, that interest must be seen as subordinate to the interests and wishes of a rightful owner. Where a claim has been upheld and restitution is seen as appropriate by all parties, it is essential that legislative barriers to such restitution be removed"." As the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, recalled from first-hand experience, in its second report on the Beneventan Missal in 2005, the panel, guided by the advice of the Select Committee, recommended that legislation be introduced to amend the British Museum Act 1963, the British Library Act 1972 and the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 so as to permit restitution of objects in this category. In 2006, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport conducted a public consultation on the issue of Nazi era restitution.