Italy Plans Restitution Legislation

Italy is joining other European countries, including Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, the UK, and Switzerland, in establishing its own restitution laws. The legislation was introduced by a lawmaker from Brothers of Italy, the right-wing populist political party in Italy that is currently the country’s ruling party, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The Art Newspaper reports that if the bill is considered, a five-member committee will be established by government officials, giving the committee the task of examining the provenance of works between 1933 and 1945 that were confiscated, looted, or sold under duress.

“Introducing this bill does not merely mean finally bringing Italy into line with the highest international standards … but [it] means, first and foremost, fulfilling a historic duty,” Federico Mollicone, member of the chamber of deputies of Italy and president of the culture commission in Italy’s lower house of parliament, told TAN.

Mollicone introduced the bill in March and said that this law is not “merely talking about property claims” but a larger conversation to be had around “restoring human dignity, memory and the fundamental principles of our constitution.”

Compared to other European countries, Italy has lacked pace in developing restitution protocols for dispossessed Jews. “Italy is obviously a central country in the world of art … and yet on this issue of the Holocaust restitution, it had barely scratched the surface in addressing it,” Gideon Taylor, the president of World Jewish Restitution Organisation, told TAN. France’s restitution and compensation committee was created in 1999, and in 2000, the UK established its Spoliation Advisory Panel, an advisory body that works on cultural property looted during the Nazi era.

However, passing such legislation in Italy is bound to be a challenge, as works held in Italian museums are recognized as inalienable parts of the national heritage under the law. The bill that Mollicone has proposed argues that the final restitution decision would remove the work from public domain and the protections of Italy’s heritage code, potentially resulting in the works leaving the country. Mollicone said his goal is to “complete the parliamentary review and pass the bill in the coming months. We want to bring this historic reform to a successful conclusion within this legislative session.”