What is restitution?

Restitution is the process of returning works of art to their rightful owners.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, work began on external restitution. In the American occupation zone alone, by 1948 around 470,000 works of art and 1.7 million books had been returned to the countries from which they had been looted.

Internal restitution followed somewhat later. The victims of Nazi persecution and oppression under the German Reich were able to apply for restitution from 1947. Many Jews who had emigrated to escape persecution filed such applications and were now faced with lengthy restitution proceedings in German regional courts.