Cabinet releases money to make orphaned Jewish looted art visible

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The cabinet is structurally making €400,000 available to set up programming around orphaned Jewish looted art from the NK collection. This collection consists of paintings, furniture and other personal items looted from Dutch Jews during World War II. Some of these cultural objects are stored in the depot of the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) or are on loan to museums.

Minister Rianne Letschert (OCW): ,’The NK collection includes paintings, musical instruments, ceramics and carpets that were looted from Jewish owners or forcibly sold during World War II. Many owners never returned. What was theirs is the last visible trace of their lives. By making the collection visible, we keep the memory of them alive and tell the history of the Holocaust.’'

Programming can make orphaned Jewish looted art visible and appealing to a wide audience, with travelling exhibitions, for example. Or with special text signs in museums. This was one of the recommendations of the report “Advice on orphaned Jewish looted art from the NK collection”, released by the Asscher Committee on behalf of the Central Jewish Consultation (CJO).

The NK collection is a special sub-collection within the National Collection. It comprises art and utensils recovered from Germany by the Allies after World War II and returned to the Netherlands. In 2026, the collection still has over 3,300 objects. Some of these are objects looted from, or forcibly sold by, Jewish Dutch people and other persecuted groups in the context of the Holocaust. Through 2027, the Cultural Heritage Agency is conducting research into which part can be designated as orphaned Jewish looted art.

These other recommendations of the Asscher Committee are adopted by the minister: Orphaned Jewish looted art from the NK collection will be transferred to the Jewish community, as previously promised.
The objects remain available for possible restitution requests from individual rights holders.
A subsidy scheme for research into the provenance of museum objects will be set up to gain better insight into looted art in the Netherlands Collection. 500,000 euros will be available in 2026; one million euros a year from 2027 to 2031.

As the history of looting during the Nazi period affects several countries, the Dutch government is continuing international talks on the subject.