Italy

Despite the fact that Italy agreed to both the Washington Principles and the Terezin Declaration, it does not seem that any of its many museums have examined their collections to determine whether they include artworks with doubtful or unknown provenance during the Mussolini period. Not having made such an examination, Italy has not made public information on museum holdings of possible looted art although The Commission for Art Recovery has learned that at least two museums in Milan are well aware of claims that have been made for art in their collections by Holocaust victims or their heirs.

There follows a portion of a presentation made by The Commission for Art Recovery at a restitution symposium held in Milan on June 23, 2011.

In November 2011, one of the looted paintings in the collection of the Pinacoteca di Brera mentioned in the presentation was seized by a U.S. Attorney in Florida. Romanino’s “Christ Carrying the Cross” was on loan to a museum in Tallahassee, Florida. The painting was returned to the heirs of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe on April 18, 2012.