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The Repatriation of Art Property
(2012-10-03)
Last updated: 2012-10-03 13:44 EET Print
A delicate issue for Romania, the recovery of its cultural treasures entrusted to Russia nearly 100 years ago during World War I, is again a front-page story in Romania. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the Russian Federation to continue bilateral negotiations with a view to returning cultural goods, properties and assets seized from European countries, Romania included. Three Romanian MEPs have submitted a draft amendment on the repatriation of Romania’s cultural assets. The three consider that today’s democratic Russia should not repeat the mistakes of its tsarist and Bolshevik past. On the other hand, the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly ruled out another amendment pushed by Romanian MEPs, which stipulated that the Russian Federation must first hand back a gold stock of 93.4 tonnes in coins and ingots which Russia had confiscated from the National Bank of Romania in 1917 to settle Romania’s debt for damages inflicted to this country in World War I. For over a century Romania has been trying in vain to recover the cultural goods it had sent to Tsarist Russia during World War I for safekeeping, lest they should fall into the hands of the Allied Powers that had already occupied most of Romania and threatened to gain control of the entire country. At the end of the war, Moscow’s promise to return Romania’s goods was not recognised by the new Soviet rule, so they have never been recovered. In 2004 Romania submitted documented proof to the Russia Federation, putting the total value of confiscated cultural goods at some 3.2 billion euros. The list includes tonnes of gold and assets that represent the property of Romanian private bankers or individuals, but also art collections, jewellery and documents, all of which have been claimed back by the Romanian state. Moscow returned part of Romania’s treasures in third instalments, first in 1935, then in 1956, and again in 2008.

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