Legal Obstacles to Claims for Restitution of Cultural Objects Removed as Spoils of War

The nineteenth century witnessed an immense looting of cultural property (“art looting”) during international warfare. Nowadays, many countries that had been deprived of their treasures as spoils of war (“countries of origin”) during that period seek to regain lost cultural property. Disputes of this kind become one of the most controversial and difficult issues in international law today. Whether these countries of origin have a legal right to restitution is one of essential discussions with regard to these disputes. This article discusses what legal obstacles countries of origin would face if they bring a claim to restitution of cultural objects that they lost possession of over a century ago in international law. The first obstacle is whether countries of origin could rely on any rules of international law, especially the laws and customs of war (or “the law of war”) in the current international legal framework. The second obstacle concerns whether the statutes of limitations or the passage of time undermine claims for restitution. The third obstacle is whether national patrimony law could be a pretext for preventing claims for the return of historically dispossessed cultural objects.