NEW YORK, NY (July 1, 2026) — The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) welcomed a significant legislative milestone in the Italian Parliament that would – for the first time – establish a formal restitution process for Holocaust-era looted art and cultural property. The Chamber of Deputies’ VII Committee on Culture, Science, and Education reviewed Bill C. 2834 on Wednesday, June 24. Introduced by Hon. President Federico Mollicone, the bill would empower the Italian Government to create a restitution process for art and cultural property seized, looted or lost due to antisemitic racial persecution under Italian Fascist racial laws beginning in 1938, and the broader Holocaust-era period between 1933 and 1945.

“We welcome this initiative by Hon. President Federico Mollicone and the decision of the Chamber of Deputies to advance this critical legislation. The bill offers a historic opportunity to finally deliver justice to victims of Nazi and fascist persecution and their heirs,” said Gideon Taylor, President of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). “In comparison to the experience of neighboring Western democracies during the past two decades, families seeking the return of their cultural heritage in Italy have faced considerable resistance. While operational and legal details remain to be resolved as the bill moves forward, this is a vital step toward creating a framework for restitution.“

Taylor continued, “Going forward, it is important that Italy should ensure that the final framework establishes an independent committee with a robust mandate.  We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) and the Italian Government.”

In March 2024, WJRO and the Claims Conference released a global progress report, Holocaust-Era Looted Cultural Property: A Current Worldwide Overview, finding that Italy had made only “some progress” over the past 25 years. Unlike neighboring countries, Italy had not yet established a clear procedure for restitution despite having endorsed the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the 2009 Terezin Declaration.

Bill 2834 directly addresses the gaps identified in the global progress report and incorporates elements of the Best Practices by establishing two critical pillars: creating an independent committee with binding restitution authority, and, in relation to art looted from persecuted communities between 1933 and 1945 only, disapplying national limitation rules, the principle of inalienability of State property and national asset protections, thus allowing the return of looted art free from the legal hurdles traditionally standing in the way of restitution, especially of property in Italian public collections.

Professor Casini’s comprehensive country report, “La restituzione di opere d’arte sottratte per ragioni di persecuzione razziale nel periodo 1933-1945: I beni custoditi nelle collezioni pubbliche italiane” (The Restitution of Artworks Looted for Reasons of Racial Persecution in the Period 1933-1945: Items Held in Italian Public Collections), jointly prepared by the IMT Lucca School for Advanced Studies, the Claims Conference, and the WJRO, was formally submitted to the parliamentary record as part of the official testimony and is available here. The report details Italy’s legal framework, the specifics of this legislative effort, and how it compares to established restitution models in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, and the United Kingdom.  In preparing the report, Professor Lorenzo Casini (Rector and Professor of Administrative Law and Cultural Heritage Law, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca and former Co-President of the International Society of Public Law) was assisted by Dr. Wesley Fisher, (Director of Research at the WJRO), Giuseppe Calabi (art and cultural heritage lawyer, member of the Italian Ministry of Culture’s committee for reviewing the international circulation legal framework), Pierre Valentin (art and cultural heritage lawyer), Dr. Katharina Hüls-Valenti (provenance researcher), Dr. Bianca Gaudenzi (Assistant professor, University of Florence, and Bye-Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge) and Dr. Sharon Hecker (Contract Professor, Università degli Studi di Milano and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano).

While applauding this legislative milestone, Taylor emphasized that “the effectiveness of the law will ultimately depend on its specific mechanisms to align it fully with international standards. Unlike other European countries, Italy has historically lacked a specialized panel tasked with assessing disputes based on criteria of equity and fairness, and these will be critical elements in establishing a fair and just process as we move forward.”

A link to the June 24 hearing in Italian (video and written statements) is available here.

Livia Ottolenghi, President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), stated at the hearing, “With the bill under discussion, Italy is finally taking steps—albeit many years after not only the spoliations but also the 1998 Washington Conference—to fill a gap, through an initiative aimed at clearly establishing, in our country as well, a right to redress, certainly not for the lives lost and the suffering endured, but for the dispossession of artistic heritage—which a legal system that respects fundamental human rights must, in any case, ensure. With specific regard to the text of the bill, we therefore reaffirm our full support for the fundamental direction of the proposal, in line with the implementation of the Washington Principles.”