About the Federal Arts Administration

The Federal Arts Administration is an agency, subordinate to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The agency was established on 1 February 2020 and is based in Berlin. The main tasks of the Federal Arts Administration are so far:

• administration of the art holdings of the Federal Republic of Germany
• provenance research on the art holdings of the Federal Republic of Germany and restitution

The Federal Arts Administration was founded, however, to take on additional tasks, namely the administration of the funding by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Starting from 2025, the Federal Arts Administration is meant to decide on the import of Cultural goods according the Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the introduction and the import of cultural goods.

Origin of the art holdings of the Federal Republic of Germany

The art holdings of the Federal Republic of Germany comprise more than 100,000 objects of a variety of origins, distributed among individual departments (federal ministries). The art and cultural objects originate from:

• former property of the German Reich
• the central government of the German Democratic Republic
• acquisitions by the Federal Republic of Germany
• funding projects of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

Administration of the art holdings of the Federal Republic of Germany

The Federal Government has regulated the handling of its works of art in the “Guideline for the administration of the Federal art possession” of 2 September 2003 (Art Guideline). According to this Art Guideline the Federal Arts Administration:

• registers works of art in a central database.
• administers the majority of works of art of the federal commissioner for culture and media. This includes lending, storage, restoration and utilization.
• makes the Federal Republic of Germany's holdings of works of art accessible to the public.
• makes its expertise in the field of arts available to all departments of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Provenance research on the art holdings of the Federal Republic of Germany and restitution

The Federal Republic of Germany accepts its special responsibility for the return of cultural property confiscated from persons persecuted by the Nazi regime. For that purpose it joined the “Washington Prinicples” of 3 December 1998 in a “Common Statement by the Federal Government, the Länder and the national associations of local authorities on the tracing and return of Nazi-confiscated art, especially Jewish Property” of 9 December 1999. The Federal Republic of Germany is undertaking to locate works of art confiscated during the National Socialist era, to identify the rightful owners or their legal successors and to take the necessary steps to achieve “just and fair” solutions according to the above-named principles.

• “Washington Principles” of 3 December 1998
• “Common Statement by the Federal Government, the Länder and the national associations of local authorities on the tracing and return of Nazi-confiscated art, especially Jewish Property” of 9 December 1999

On the basis of this responsibility, the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Art Administration, continuously checks the provenance of all works of art in its possession that were created before 1945 (provenance research). If this examination reveals that works of art were unlawfully confiscated from the persons who had previously owned them, the works of art are returned to them or their legal successors (restitution).

In order to create full transparency, the results of this provenance research and the information about the restitutions are published by the Federal Art Administration in the provenance database ProvenienzdatenbankBund.

Provenance database “ProvenienzdatenbankBund”

For questions use the contact form below or write to: info@kvdb.bund.de