Reform of the Advisory Commission

At the invitation of the Minister of State for Culture, Claudia Roth, the Ministers of Culture and the Senators for Culture of the Länder, the representatives of the leading municipal associations, and the Cultural Foundations of the German Federal States and the federal government met for the 19th top-level meeting on cultural policy at the Chancellery, where they agreed to go ahead with a fundamental reform of the Advisory Commission.

The press release reads as follows:

[...] The federal government, the Länder and the leading municipal associations agree on the need to strengthen the Advisory Commission by introducing fundamental reforms. This includes in particular a binding evaluation framework and improved structures. Specific proposals for regulations are to be discussed and decided on in spring 2024.

In addition, the federal government will promote the restitution of Nazi-looted art through a standardised right to information, the exclusion of the statute of limitations on restitution claims, and an agreement on a central place of jurisdiction. This will go even further in doing justice to the goals of the Washington Declaration. In this way, important foundations will be laid for an agreement on the option to lodge a unilateral request for mediation.

Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth: “I am pleased that today we have been able to agree on a common path of reform and key shared principles. For me, this includes in particular the issue of the option to lodge a unilateral request for mediation.

Falko Mohrs, Chairman of the Conference of Ministers of Culture and Minister for Science and Culture in Lower Saxony: “We agree that efforts to identify cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution should be further intensified. Above all, we wish to do even better justice to the claims of the descendants of victims of the Nazi regime, especially Jewish families, in cases where cultural property was confiscated as a result of persecution. The framework conditions for restitution must be further improved. We are primarily concerned to ensure that the Advisory Commission’s recommendations are more transparent, plausible and verifiable. We are pleased that the federal government, the Länder and the municipalities are keen to press ahead with reforms swiftly.”

At the top-level meeting, the Ministers and Senators of Culture of the Länder, the Minister of State for Culture, the Minister of State for International Cultural Policy at the Federal Foreign Office Katja Keul and the representatives of the leading municipal associations also continued their consultations on how to deal with art and cultural assets from colonial contexts. Here they agreed on a timely supplement to the “Framework Principles for dealing with collections from colonial contexts” adopted in 2019. [...]”

The press release in its entirety