The Artistic Recovery Commission (Commission de récupération artistique, or CRA) was a French public body of the Ministry of Education created on November 24, 1944, in order to process and return artworks and books plundered by the Nazis during the Occupation of France by Germany during World War II, discovered by the Allies after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Rose Valland, a conservation curator at the Jeu de Paume, played an important role in tracing, identifying and recovering the artworks looted by the ERR in France.
In order to process the works returned to France, the provisional government of the Republic set up a dedicated body: the Commission de récupération artistique, or CRA, was created on November 24, 1944, by an order of the Minister of National Education René Capitant at the request of Jacques Jaujard, director of the National Museums of France.
Chaired by the art collector Albert Henraux, president of the Société des Amis du Louvre and vice-president of the Higher Council of Museums, the CRA then had seventeen members who could be assisted by experts appointed by the Ministry of Education.
The role of the CRA is to provide its expertise to complete the declarations of spoliations made by the victims to the OBIP, the only administration required to receive the files.