In the wake of the Second World War, cultural officers from the western Allied powers recovered several million objects plundered by the Nazis – works of art, Judaica, fine furniture, collectible books and archive collections. Recent books and films have popularized the history of the heroic art recovery effort, but less well-known is the story of what happened to objects that were never returned to rightful owners. In France, Belgium and the Netherlands, postwar governments selected the best of the unclaimed objects and distributed them to public museums, ministries, embassies and other state buildings. This public use of recovered art quietly endured until the 1990s, when heightened awareness of Holocaust-era assets led to greater public and press scrutiny and an increase in restitution claims. This article examines the origins of postwar art custodianships in a comparative analysis of French, Belgian and Dutch restitution policies. The comparison reveals national differences in the scope of looting operations and postwar restitution policies, yet the broad contours of each government’s approach to ownerless art are remarkably similar. In all three cases the custodianships continued the long-term dispossession of Jewish owners wrought by the Nazis and their collaborators.

中文翻译：

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索取国家遗产：战后西欧纳粹艺术掠夺的国家拨款

第二次世界大战结束后，西方盟国的文化官员收回了数百万被纳粹掠夺的物品——艺术品、犹太教、精美的家具、收藏书籍和档案馆藏品。最近的书籍和电影宣传了英雄艺术恢复努力的历史，但鲜为人知的是那些从未归还给合法所有者的物品发生了什么故事。在法国、比利时和荷兰，战后政府从无人认领的物品中挑选出最好的，并将它们分发给公共博物馆、政府部门、大使馆和其他国家建筑。这种对回收艺术品的公开使用一直持续到 1990 年代，当时人们对大屠杀时代资产的认识提高，导致公众和新闻界进行了更严格的审查，并增加了赔偿要求。本文通过对法国、比利时和荷兰的归还政策的比较分析，探讨了战后艺术品保管权的起源。这种比较揭示了各国在掠夺行动和战后归还政策方面的差异，但各国政府处理无主艺术品的方法的大致轮廓却非常相似。在所有三个案例中，监护权都延续了纳粹及其合作者对犹太所有者的长期剥夺。