Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste

The Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste (English: “Coordination Center for Lost Cultural Assets”), also known as the Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg (English: “Magdeburg Coordination Center”), is an institution of the German federal and state governments at the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Culture and is the central German institution for the documentation of lost and found cultural assets looted by the Nazis. Established in 2001, the Koordinierungsstelle's Lost Art Database documents and publishes lost and found reports by institutions and private individuals. It operates on a cooperative basis with the international Art Loss Register.

The Koordinierungsstelle was first established in 1994 in Bremen as an institution for the German states to document the institutional losses of cultural goods during the Second World War. The center thereby took over an operation that was carried out by German Ministry of the Interior since the 1950s. Originally they dealt with artworks left behind during the flight and expulsion of ethnic Germans between 1944 and 1950. Only after 1990 was looted art, defined as cultural goods seized illegally by German authorities during National Socialism, included in the Center’s documentation.

In 1998, the Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste moved to Magdeburg with newly extended responsibilities and financed half by the German Federal Government and half by all of the state governments. It is an official central German institution, whose administrative and technical supervision is in the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Culture. Since 2010 its official name is Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg - Eine Einrichtung des Bundes und der Länder für Kulturgutdokumentation und Kulturgutverluste beim Kultusministerium des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt (English: "The Magdeburg Coordination Center - An institution of the federal and state governments for cultural documentation and lost cultural assets of the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Culture").

Its main task is, in accordance with the requirements of the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the 1999 German “general declaration,” to document international lost and found registrations relating to cultural goods seized by the Nazis (Raubgut or “stolen art”) as well cultural objects taken in the war (Beutegut or “looted art”). This task has been carried out since 2001 on the searchable Lost Art Database, which is accessible at no cost on the internet. The stated aim of the Lost Art Database is:

...
Wikipedia