A painting by Max Pechstein, which belonged to a Jewish doctor who had to flee the Nazis, is to be auctioned in Cologne. Why Germany finally needs a looted art law that also applies to collectors.
It is an extraordinary self-portrait that is to be auctioned in Cologne on Tuesday. In terms of art history, it is significant: colorful, intimate, expressive. But also because it raises questions. Not aesthetic, but legal. Why does the Federal Republic still have no looted art law 25 years after the Washington Declaration? Because the self-commitment to seek clarification and restitution only applies to museums and public collections. Private collections are still unaffected. And unlike in the Netherlands or Austria, there is no looted art law in Germany.