Reliquaries, crosses, images of saints – filigree engraved with gold and silver, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, crystal and ivory. The Treasure of Welf is undoubtedly one of the most important church treasures of the Middle Ages. It includes 44 masterpieces of medieval ecclesiastical art.
The Welf dynasty is the oldest surviving noble house in Europe. The family has amassed numerous treasures worth hundreds of millions of euros.
The precious objects can still be seen in Berlin. Because the question has once again been raised as to whether the Foundation for Prussian Cultural Heritage (SPK) is indeed their rightful owner or whether the works of art were looted by the Nazis.
The case had long seemed clear: during the Nazi era, the Welf treasure was sold to the Prussian state by a consortium of Jewish art dealers from Frankfurt, who had purchased it from a noble house in 1929. After World War II, it became the property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Ten years ago, the Advisory Commission on Stolen Art, also known as the Limbach Commission, ruled that the Welf treasures were not looted. Apparently, the expert council found no evidence that the Nazis had extorted the sale of the art from the owners. The descendants' lawsuit in American courts to return the Welf treasures was dismissed in 2023.
Legal wrangling over the Welf treasure
The Jewish heirs filed a claim for restitution in 2008. A legal battle ensued. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation estimated the value of the treasure at one hundred million euros, while the heirs who appealed estimated it at 260 million.
And then documents found in the State Archives of Hesse in 2022 raised suspicions that the sale of the Welf treasure was not as voluntary as previously assumed.
Forced sale?
Alice Koch, a Jewish co-owner who owned a quarter of the Welf treasure, was paid one million and 1935 Reichsmarks in 115.000, but this sum was immediately extorted from her as a "tax on fleeing from the Reich."
"The Reich escape tax was an instrument for extracting the assets of Jewish citizens who wanted to escape," recalls Berlin victims' legal representative Jörg Rosbach. "Without paying the Reich escape tax, there was no receipt for the tax payment. And without the receipt for the tax payment, there was no permission to leave the country."
A previously unknown document shows that Alice Koch paid a tax on escape from the Reich of over one million Reichsmarks. Without it, she would not have been able to escape from Nazi Germany. Just four days after the tax notice, Alice Koch paid it, received a receipt from the tax authorities and – she was able to escape.
Will the case now be reopened?
Does this document change the course of the Welf dynasty's treasures? Not quite: The Stolen Art Commission can only reopen the case if the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation agrees. And after months of hesitation, it seems ready.
"The Foundation would agree to this," the statement said, "if the conditions are clarified in accordance with the procedural rules." And to initiate this, the Foundation must again contact the Commission, as well as the lawyers for Alice Koch's descendants - "to clarify outstanding issues."
The Commission's president, lawyer Hans-Jürgen Papir, wants to speed things up: "The Foundation is (...) obliged to immediately agree to the Commission's request. The examination of admissibility is the Commission's sole responsibility," says Papir.
Although Germany still does not have a restitution law, the country is committed to the basic principles of the 1998 Washington Declaration. According to them, "just and fair solutions" need to be found for artworks looted by the Nazis.
This has been the task of the so-called Limbach Commission, named after its first chairwoman, the now-deceased constitutional judge Juta Limbach. In future, disputed cases will be decided by arbitration courts, which, unlike previous practice, can also be appealed by the parties to the dispute.
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