Photo: collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The City of Amsterdam decided that the work ‘Bild mit Haüsern’ by Kandinsky from the collection of the Stedelijk Museum will be returned to the Lewenstein heirs. After the negative binding expert opinion at the Dutch Restitutions Committee and the decision of the District Court Amsterdam last year (Rb Amsterdam, 16 December 2020, ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2020:6277) this is a breakthrough.
In its decision, the City of Amsterdam takes into account the recent evaluation of the Dutch restitution policy, from which it followed that the Netherlands has to make a better effort when it comes to restitution. The highly debated “balance of interest-test” used as method in deciding over Nazi looted art claims, was finally abandoned early this year. The current possessor did not want to await a renewed assessment of the case and is now discussing final arrangements regarding return.