§ Mr. Ivan LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on the Government's proposals in response to the claim concerning the "View of Hampton Court Palace" by Jan Griffier the Elder at the Tate Gallery. [146570]
§ Mr. Alan HowarthI have received the report, which is published today as a parliamentary paper, of the spoliation advisory panel's examination of the claim in relation to the Griffier painting in the Tate Gallery. On behalf of the Government, I welcome the panel's report and will implement the recommendation which is addressed to us.
In setting up the panel, we recognised the duty to do what the Government can to play their part in righting these historic wrongs and the need to ensure that questions of ownership of works of art arising from the terrible events of the Nazi era are resolved. Although the report makes it clear that the family, who wish to remain anonymous, have no legal title to the painting, and that there is no criticism whatsoever of the Tate Gallery, I accept on behalf of the Government the panel's advice that there is a moral strength to the claimant's argument and that, in the spirit of the declaration of principles agreed at the Washington conference on holocaust-era assets held in December 1998, this justifies an ex gratia payment of £125,000.