Summary

TAPE_NUMBER: EF00/0167 IN_TIME: 04:09:21 - 07:30:50 - 10:06:43 LENGTH: 02:47 SOURCES: APTN RESTRICTIONS: FEED: VARIOUS (THE ABOVE TIME-CODE IS TIME-OF-DAY) SCRIPT: English/Nat An international commission will start its long-awaited programme to accept claims from Jewish families still owed money from Nazi-era insurance policies next week. Speaking at a special hearing in Washington D-C, the head of the commission said the claims process would mark the start of a process that would finally reward those who had not seen justice for six decades. Also at the two-day hearing, a top researcher estimated that in the 12 years of Adolf Hitler's rule, the Nazis stole 600-thousand works of art from Jews in Germany and from countries they occupied in the Second World War. The chairman of the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims on Thursday confirmed that the claims process would finally start next week. Speaking at a hearing before the House Banking Committee, Lawrence Eagleburger said that an agreement had been reached after nearly a year of negotiations. SOUNDBITE: (English) "On 15th of February, we will announce the opening of our claims process and what that means is in effect that through Websites, through publications and newspapers, through cooperation, through various Jewish groups, we will go out to hopefully most places in the world where there may in fact be claimants and tell them: here is how you make your claim." SUPER CAPTION: Lawrence Eagleburger, Chairman International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims The insurance compensation programme is part of the so-called German foundation initiative, a fund not yet established by German government and industry, mainly to pay people forced into labour by the Nazi regime. Eagleburger negotiated the programme with Jewish representatives and five European insurance companies that now have subsidiaries in the United States. But he said he would get "progressively nastier" in his attempts to get other insurers that operated during the Holocaust to join the commission. Eagleburger did welcome the news that Austria would press for compensation for Nazi slave labourers, despite fears that the offer could be used by the new government as a ploy to calm international outrage over the inclusion of the Freedom Party, whose leader in the past praised Hitler's employment policies. SOUNDBITE: (English) "The Austrian Chancellor yesterday indicated that he wanted Austrian insurance companies to participate fully in the process of restitution and I can assure you I will take that word from the Chancellor as controlling, as far as Austrian insurance companies are concerned. We have a number of them on our list of potential members of the commission and we will be approaching those companies soon." SUPER CAPTION: Lawrence Eagleburger, Chairman International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims The House Banking Committee on Thursday also heard that the Nazis stole an estimated 600-thousand works of art from Jews in Germany and from countries they occupied. Jonathan Petropoulos, research director for art on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States, testified that 44 countries were taking part in the search for still-missing items. But the director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York spoke of the problems when law investigations and the courts get involved in disputed ownership cases. At the end of 1997, his museum received two claims against two different works by the artist Egon Schiele that were on loan from the Leopold Foundation in Vienna. Although the claims were much disputed, a subpoena was issued by the Manhattan District Attorney and the pieces remain locked away. SOUNDBITE: (English) "With the immensely valuable participation of groups, like the Commission for Art Recovery of the World Jewish Congress, we have seen that the most effective means to resolve problems involving the return of Nazi looted art requires good faith, discretion and cooperation between museums and claimants and not the blunt instruments of subpoena power and forfeiture proceedings." SUPER CAPTION: Glenn Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York Lowry added that a new way must be found to solve the problem of returning the works of art. SOUNDBITE: (English) "So far other than costing hundreds of thousand of dollars and untold hours of time, the paintings have been locked away in storage, inaccessible to the claimants and inaccessible to the public. And because of this many foreign lenders - both public and private - have raised serious concerns about lending to American art museums, all sobering and unintending consequences of the various legal actions surrounding the case." SUPER CAPTION: Glenn Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York Among the new figure of 600-thousand looted art objects were paintings, sculptures, objets d'art, tapestries, but furniture, books, stamps or coins were not included in this total. SHOTLIST: Washington DC, US - February 10, 2000 and File Washington DC - February 10 1. Committee 2. Hearing 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lawrence Eagleburger, Chairman International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims 4. Audience 5. Panel speaking 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Lawrence Eagleburger, Chairman International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims 7. Hearing 8. Panel FILE - New York, July 14 1998 9. Exterior of Museum of Modern Art 10. Art book photograph of Schiele painting "Portrait of Wally" 11. Detail of paintings 12. Art book, picture of "Dead City 111" 13. Detailed of Schiele's signature Washington DC - February 10 16. SOUNDBITE (English) Glenn Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York 17. Photographers 18. SOUNDBITE (English) Glenn Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York 19. Audience XFA?