Chamber and committees

Care of the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) is a statutory function of the Board of Trustees. However, the Government has asked the UK national institutions to investigate their collections to establish whether any objects may have been looted during World War II and the Nazi period. This exercise is being led and co-ordinated by the UK National Museum Directors' ConferenceIn accordance with the Statement of Principles and Proposed Actions issued by the Conference, the NGS drew up an action plan for examining their collections. From the 150,000 works in the collections, some 40,000 were identified as having been acquired from 1933 onwards. Further investigation has identified a substantial number of items with incomplete provenance, but this does not necessarily mean that these items were spoliated during World War II and the Nazi period. Research into the provenance of these items is continuing as a matter of urgency and the NGS will publish the results as soon as possible. I understand that the Conference is satisfied with the NGS action plan and the progress being made in examining the collections.I appreciate the concerns of those with an interest in works of art which were looted during the Nazi period, but the responsible course is to investigate the provenance of objects as quickly and thoroughly as possible before publishing information on them.