Roughly 100,000 works of art were looted by the Nazis or sold under pressure in France, and many of the country’s national museums acquired works during German occupation. Although a majority of those works were reclaimed by their rightful owners, around 2,000 works of art still remain in French national museums awaiting ownership claims. France has been criticized for only restituting around 100 of these works, prompting the hiring of Polack to identify suspect acquisitions made under France’s Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis.
A member of a task force dedicated to restituting Nazi-looted works said the committee was finishing its investigation into the Dorville collection, and will make an official recommendation on restituting the works to the heirs in the coming weeks. While the Dorvilles wait, they have some good news: On Wednesday Germany
returned three artworks to the family that had been found in the notorious Cornelius Gurlitt collection.