National Museums Recovery

Nearly 100,000 cultural objects stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis were sent from France to Germany during the Occupation.  

At the end of the Second World War, approximately 60,000 works recovered in Germany or in territories under the control of the "Third Reich" were returned to France, as certain clues (archives, inscriptions, etc.) suggested that they originated there.

Of these 60,000 objects repatriated from Germany, 45,000 looted items were returned to their owners by the Commission for Artistic Recovery (CRA) between 1945 and 1950.

    Of the approximately 15,000 works that have not been claimed or returned, the administration, through "selection committees", has selected more than 2,200 according to various criteria, including their artistic merit.

These works have been entrusted to the care of national museums and constitute the so-called MNR works, "National Museums Recovery".

The remaining 13,000 works were sold by the State (Domains Administration) in the early 1950s. The selected items were to be exhibited in museums to allow the dispossessed to claim them.

Upon the expiration of a legally mandated period, these items were supposed to become state property. However, this period was never specified, and the MNR items remained temporarily held by the National Museums, awaiting restitution to their rightful owners.