The High Court ruled in May that the museum's trustees would be breaking the British Museum Act 1963 if they returned four Old Master drawings which were stolen from Arthur Feldmann in Brno, Czech Republic.
The museum wanted to return them, given the 'exceptional moral circumstances' - they were stolen in March 1939 after Feldmann was murdered by the Nazis.
The judge ruled that new legislation was necessary to allow the trustees to circumvent the act, which forbids them from disposing of items owned by the museum, except under very specific circumstances.
The case will now be referred to the Spoliation Advisory Panel of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). 'It would be pretty surprising if the recommendation [of the panel] were not for restitution,' Toby Sargent, a spokesman for the DCMS, told Museums Journal. 'There's a very good chance that legislation will be introduced, but ministers haven't yet made that decision.'
In March, the government agreed the British Library should return the Beneventan Missal, an Italian medieval manuscript looted in the 1940s. Sargent said a second moral case for restitution, accompanied by the court ruling, would 'send a pretty clear signal' that the law should be changed.
'It is essential that the government doesn't delay bringing forward legislation which would allow the drawings to be returned,' said Anne Webber, the co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, which represents the Feldmann family.
'It has already agreed the Beneventan Missal should be returned, so new legislation is needed anyway.' She added that legal proceedings in Britain to recover the drawings were being considered by the Feldmann family following the High Court ruling.
The museum bought the drawings - Niccolo dell'Abbate's The Holy Family, Nicholas Blakey's An Allegory on Poetic Inspiration with Mercury and Apollo, Martin Johann Schmidt's Virgin and Child adored by Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John, and Saint Dorothy with the Christ Child by a follower of Martin Schongauer - at auction in 1946, not knowing they were loot.
It recognises they 'were wrongfully taken by the Gestapo' and it has a moral duty to return them.
If the law is not changed, 'the claimants may be able to prove they still have title to the paintings, in which case they must be returned,' said Peter Gibb, a barrister specialising in museums. 'If the family were to bring a claim in this country, they would succeed fairly easily,' he added.
'Any acquisition of Nazi loot by the museum could only have been the unintended result of ignorance as to the circumstances in which it was on the market,' the museum said in a statement. It is still investigating whether eight works in its collection acquired since 1938 were looted by the Nazis.
The case is unlikely to affect the ongoing dispute over demands for restitution of other objects, such as the Greek Parthenon Sculptures, which the judge said were not relevant to the Feldmann case.
The museum does not recognise a moral case for return of the sculptures, which were lawfully vested in the museum by a separate act of parliament.
Roland Lloyd Parry
The museum wanted to return them, given the 'exceptional moral circumstances' - they were stolen in March 1939 after Feldmann was murdered by the Nazis.
The judge ruled that new legislation was necessary to allow the trustees to circumvent the act, which forbids them from disposing of items owned by the museum, except under very specific circumstances.
The case will now be referred to the Spoliation Advisory Panel of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). 'It would be pretty surprising if the recommendation [of the panel] were not for restitution,' Toby Sargent, a spokesman for the DCMS, told Museums Journal. 'There's a very good chance that legislation will be introduced, but ministers haven't yet made that decision.'
In March, the government agreed the British Library should return the Beneventan Missal, an Italian medieval manuscript looted in the 1940s. Sargent said a second moral case for restitution, accompanied by the court ruling, would 'send a pretty clear signal' that the law should be changed.
'It is essential that the government doesn't delay bringing forward legislation which would allow the drawings to be returned,' said Anne Webber, the co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, which represents the Feldmann family.
'It has already agreed the Beneventan Missal should be returned, so new legislation is needed anyway.' She added that legal proceedings in Britain to recover the drawings were being considered by the Feldmann family following the High Court ruling.
The museum bought the drawings - Niccolo dell'Abbate's The Holy Family, Nicholas Blakey's An Allegory on Poetic Inspiration with Mercury and Apollo, Martin Johann Schmidt's Virgin and Child adored by Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John, and Saint Dorothy with the Christ Child by a follower of Martin Schongauer - at auction in 1946, not knowing they were loot.
It recognises they 'were wrongfully taken by the Gestapo' and it has a moral duty to return them.
If the law is not changed, 'the claimants may be able to prove they still have title to the paintings, in which case they must be returned,' said Peter Gibb, a barrister specialising in museums. 'If the family were to bring a claim in this country, they would succeed fairly easily,' he added.
'Any acquisition of Nazi loot by the museum could only have been the unintended result of ignorance as to the circumstances in which it was on the market,' the museum said in a statement. It is still investigating whether eight works in its collection acquired since 1938 were looted by the Nazis.
The case is unlikely to affect the ongoing dispute over demands for restitution of other objects, such as the Greek Parthenon Sculptures, which the judge said were not relevant to the Feldmann case.
The museum does not recognise a moral case for return of the sculptures, which were lawfully vested in the museum by a separate act of parliament.
Roland Lloyd Parry
