The signs are promising that Andrew Dismore’s bill to allow the restitution of art looted during the holocaust may become law. This is a step that must be welcomed, yet such measures as this & the Human Tissue Act highlight the need for coherent legislation that tackles all restitution issues, rather than piecemeal laws that only manage to be passed by skirting around the big restitution cases.

From:
The Art Newspaper

UK parliament closer to passing bill allowing museums to deaccession Nazi-looted art
Legislation expected to be limited to 1933-1945 only
By Martin Bailey
Posted online: 23.4.09 |

LONDON. A Private Members’ Bill is to be presented for its second reading in parliament on 15 May, to allow UK national museums to deaccession art works spoliated during the Nazi period.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is expected to support the bill, subject to drafting changes, which will greatly increase its chances of eventually becoming law. The DCMS originally hoped to incorporate a clause allowing deaccessioning of Nazi-era spoliation into the Heritage Protection Bill, but last December the bill was dropped, because of pressure of government business in Parliament.
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