Restitutions Committee

Recently the Restitution Committee introduced the controversial Balance of Interest test, which takes into consideration the desire of the (typically government owned) museum to keep a looted artwork, rather than return it to the rightful claimants.

This resulted in the Committee's refusal to restitute a number of important artworks and led to international criticism at what many viewed as a self-serving mechanism.

In 2020 a Dutch panel concluded that the restitution process was unduly complex and unfair to claimants.

Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum, denounced the "balance of interest" policy to a bicycle thief who argues that he should be able to keep stolen property because he's using it.

[5] In the face of sustained criticism, the Dutch Restitutions Committee reversed its former rulings in several cases.