Russia announced here today that it would return some World War II booty to individual claimants and contribute information from its archives to an international database on looted art.
By giving ground on those fronts, Valery Kulishov, the director of the restitution department at the Russian Culture Ministry, surprised a conference on Holocaust-era assets that is shaping up as something of a diplomatic revival meeting, with delegates from country after country reporting on how they are grappling with restitution to those who lost art or other property during the war.
"If we find an object of art and there is definite proof that it belongs to a victim of the Holocaust, there is no law in Russia that would prevent quick and just restitution to the victim or his legal successor," Mr. Kulishov said in an interview. Most conference sessions are not open to the public.
Mr. Kulishov made clear that the offer did not extend to so-called trophy art, the works taken by Soviet troops from Germany and Eastern Europe that the Russians consider to be reparations for the wartime ravages their country suffered. The Russian parliament has repeatedly refused to consider the return of trophy art, now in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Nikolai Gubenko, a member of the Russian parliament who is also a delegate, defended the law that essentially nationalizes trophy art and said the Russian people should be recognized as victims, too.
Several art experts at the conference, which includes delegates from 44 countries and 13 Jewish and Gypsy groups, hailed the Russian announcement.
"It's a great step forward," said Lynn H. Nicholas, the author of "The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War" (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994). "I don't believe the Russians have ever said publicly that they would give anything back."
Jonathan Petropoulos, a historian at Loyola College in Baltimore, said, "For the Russians to say they are prepared to make a database of what's in their repositories is very significant, real movement on their part."
Mr. Kulishov said Russia would respond to inquiries about its wartime records, although it would not open them to scholars, as some countries do. As for potential claims, he said he had "no idea how much art is involved," adding, "If something belongs to a Holocaust victim, we will search for it."
Critics pointed out that Mr. Kulishov gave no specific information about what constituted proof or how claims would be handled, except that they should be made by a government on behalf of individuals.
Nor did he indicate how Russia would view complicated situations like that of the Gutmann family of Vienna, a case recently uncovered by Oliver Rathkolb of the Kreisky Archives and Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna. He said 41 Rembrandt engravings owned by the Gutmanns were seized by Hitler's forces, then taken by Soviet forces. "I think it would qualify," Mr. Rathkolb said.
But as with all announcements and developments at the conference, there are no enforcement mechanisms other than the desire to maintain international standing. "Every government talked of doing something, and how serious they are it is hard to judge," Ms. Nicholas said. "But having said something in public, it would be hard to retreat."
Retreat may be difficult. Ronald S. Lauder, the wealthy cosmetics heir who is chairman of the World Jewish Congress's Commission for Art Recovery and chairman of the Museum of Modern Art, railed at the Netherlands for saying it would take three years to research works of questionable provenance in its state collections, when he believed that it should take six months. And Mr. Lauder faulted France, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany for holding on to works that belong to Jews.
No one actually knows how much Nazi-looted art is missing, said Under Secretary of State Stuart E. Eizenstat, who is chairman of the conference. Mr. Petropoulos has estimated that perhaps 10,000 to 100,000 works of unknown value are missing. Nearly every speaker has called for greater openness with archival records and sharing of information in an easily accessible international database.
Most sessions at this conference, attended by 44 countries and 13 Jewish and Gypsy groups and sponsored by the State Department and the Holocaust Memorial Museum, are not open to the public.
In a briefing for reporters, Mr. Eizenstat reported new commitments from Spain and Slovenia to contribute to the gold fund created a year ago to compensate Holocaust survivors. He said Hungary and the Czech Republic would join a global effort to compensate Jews who lost insurance assets.