Bureau Herkomst Gezocht / Origins Unknown Agency

during the second world war, tens of thousands works of art that had belonged to jewish private individuals ended up in germany. they lost their possessions in forced sales, through looting or confiscation. after the war, as many objects as possible were brought back to the netherlands with the intention of locating the rightful owners. this was not possible for a large number of objects. in 1998 the bureau herkomst gezocht (origins unknown agency), established by the ministry of culture, was assigned to investigate this collection. the results of this project, completed in 2005, can be found on our website. additionally we receive a substantial amount of requests for information every year regarding looted art in general and artworks which have gone missing. 20.000 missing works of art recently we have started a new project. the aim is to digitize the registration of more than 20.000 works of art that were not recovered after the second world war and have been missing ever since. also