Italy’s Bill 2834: A Pathway Toward Restituting Jewish-Owned Art

September 17, 2026

Nicholas Gemini, Palazzo Montecitorio, photograph, 2019

By Hannah Gadway

The Italian Parliament has made waves for proposing Bill 2834, a piece of legislation focused on the “regulation of the procedures for the restitution of works of art stolen or sold due to racial persecution.”^[1] The law would create a formal process through which the Italian government could return Jewish-owned art and cultural property taken by the Nazi and Italian Fascist regimes between 1933 and 1945. This article examines Bill 2834’s significance in light of Italy’s historical relationship with Jewish restitutions.

Restitution of Jewish-Owned Art in Italy: A Brief Overview

Between 1938 and 1943, Fascist Italy instituted a set of racial laws which devastated the country’s Jewish communities.^[2] Jewish-owned property was plundered and subsequently sold, lost, or incorporated into government-owned art collections.^[3] Additionally, during the larger Nazi period of 1933-1945, it is estimated that about 20% of Europe’s art was looted by Nazi forces.^[4] Many of these looted pieces made their way to Italy.^[5]

In the wake of this history, Italy has made limited efforts to return Jewish-owned works. Although the country endorsed the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the 2009 Terezin Declaration, it did not establish a formal processes through which survivors and heirs could claim art.^[6]

The country’s largest push to restitute works occurred in the 1990s; in 1998, an Italian body called the Anselmi Commission investigated Fascist-era expropriations, but the government did not follow through with the Commission’s recommendations to identify survivors and heirs.^[7] In 1999 the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the Restitution of Artworks Seized During World War II investigated Italian museums based on the Siviero archives, or the notes of the former director of the Italian Ministry of Culture.^[8] This commission decided that there was no Jewish-owned property in Italian museums; later research and claims revealed that this conclusion was incorrect.^[9]

While these efforts signaled interest in restituting work, there has been little progress in the 2000s. The Italian government established a Working Group “for the study and research of cultural property taken in Italy from Jews between 1938 and 1945” in 2020, but the group had no independent funds, access to provenance records of public Italian collections, nor decision-making authority.^[10] Even with an estimated 100,000 works of plundered art still missing throughout Europe, Italy did not strive to evaluate its own collections’ history.^[11]

Anne Webber of the Looted Art Commission stated at a conference that it was easier to recover looted works in private Italian collections than public ones.^[12] As Webber explained: “The issue is that Italians consider they have no obligation to restitute, and they view that issue through a solely legal prism.”^[13]

Currently, that Italian legal prism does not provide structured opportunities for heirs and survivors to claim seized art. Bill 2834 could change that.

Bill C. 2834: What Does it Propose?

Bill 2834, which directly references the Washington Principles and the Terezin Declaration, aims to create an independent committee which will review claims concerning property lost due to racial persecution between 1933 and 1945.^[14] This committee would have full restitution authority and would review claims from both heirs and survivors, and independent public institutions who find troubling provenance issues.^[15] Additionally, the bill would allow the committee to pause Italy’s laws concerning the inalienability of national property.^[16] This final rule would be significant for the many suspectedly looted works currently residing in Italy’s public collections.^[17]

Federico Mollicone — Chair of the Culture, Science and Education Committee of the Chamber of Deputies — oversaw the legislation’s creation and progress through the Italian Parliament.^[18] Mollicone submitted the bill on March 9, 2026.^[19] The proposed legislation largely grew out of the 2024 report Holocaust-Era Looted Cultural Property: A Current Worldwide Overview, created by the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO).^[20] This report overviewed Italy’s restitution efforts and identified the government’s various failures.

On June 24, 2026, the Italian Chamber of Deputies’ VII Committee on Culture, Science, and Education reviewed the bill. The Committee recommended greater specification on certain aspects of the bill, including what types of property may be the subject of restitution efforts, but otherwise approved the draft legislation.^[21]

On the day of review, experts were brought before the Committee to comment on the importance of new restitution efforts. The Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI)’s President, Livia Ottolenghi, appeared at the hearing. Ottolenghi expressed that Italy’s former efforts at returning Jewish property were “inadequate both in timing and in their results.”^[22] The UCEI gave its support to the new legislation.^[23]

Michele Sarfatti, a former member of the Anselmi Commission, Italy’s 1998 attempt to focus on Jewish owned property, also appeared at the hearing. He communicated his “disappointment” in the government’s lack of progress following the Commission’s findings.^[24] He supported Bill 2834 and suggested some amendments to strengthen its advisory capacities. ^[25]

Conclusion

The path of Bill 2834 is still long. After Committee review is finalized, the bill will need to undergo larger parliamentary debate and approval.^[26] Still, it marks a strong step forward for a European nation that was reported in 2024 to have only made “some progress” in its restitution efforts over three decades.^[27] Bill 2834 demonstrates that the Italian Parliament is attempting to take away some of the legal barriers standing in the way of those seeking justice.

About the Author:

Hannah Gadway is a student at Harvard Law School and a Summer 2026 legal intern with the Center for Art Law. She graduated from Harvard College in 2025, where she majored in History & Literature. She has art history experience from working at the Harvard Art Museums. Hannah is interested in art law-related questions concerning museum provenance and the Internet.

Suggested Readings:

• Bianca Gaudenzi, Cultural Restitution and the ‘Rediscovery’ of the Holocaust in Italy, 1989–2003, 21 J. OF MODERN EUR. HIST. (2023)
• Michael A. Livingston, The Fascists and the Jews of Italy: Mussolini’s Race Laws, 1938-1943 (2013)
• Wesley Fisher & Ruth Weinberger, “Italy,” Holocaust-Era Looted Cultural Property: A Current Worldwide Overview (2024)

Select References:

1. Atto Camera Proposta di Legge No. 2834, Mar. 9 2026, accessible at https://documenti.camera.it/leg19/pdl/pdf/leg.19.pdl.camera.2834.19PDL0186390.pdf. ↑
2. Michele Sarfatti, “Review of Michael A. Livingston, The Fascists and the Jews of Italy. Mussolini’s Race Laws, 1938-1943,” QUEST ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY JEWISH HISTORY (2025), accessible at https://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/the-fascists-and-the-jews-of-italy-mussolinis-race-laws-1938-1943/. ↑
3. Italy advances landmark Holocaust art restitution bill, YNET GLOBAL (2026), accessible at https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/h1fnvd6xgx#google_vignette. ↑
4. Greg Bradsherl, Documenting Nazi Plunder of European Art, THE RECORD (1997), accessible at https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/records-and-research/documenting-nazi-plunder-of-european-art.html. ↑
5. Why are we still looking for Nazi-looted art in Italy?, LOOTEDART.COM (2022), accessible at https://www.lootedart.com/VBMD18853701. ↑
6. Italy Advances Legislation on Holocaust-Era Art Restitution, THE JEWISH LINK (2026), accessible at https://jewishlink.news/italy-advances-legislation-on-holocaust-era-art-restitution/. ↑
7. Wesley Fisher & Ruth Weinberger, “Italy,” Holocaust-Era Looted Cultural Property: A Current Worldwide Overview (2024) at 62, accessible at https://art.claimscon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/4-March-2024-Holocaust-Era-Looted-Cultural-Property-A-Current-Worldwide-Overview.pdf. ↑
8. Id. at 62. ↑
9. Id. ↑
10. Id. at 38. ↑
11. Id. ↑
12. ATENEO VENETO, ENG – Conference: “Why are we still looking for Nazi-looted art in Italy?” (YouTube, Mar. 25, 2022) at 5:18:00, accessible at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KVTbhovTgA. ↑
13. Id. ↑
14. Supra note 1 at 1. ↑
15. Id. at 2. ↑
16. Claims Conference WJRO, Italy, CLAIMS CONFERENCE (2026), accessible at https://art.claimscon.org/work-provenance-research-archives/italy/. ↑
17. Id. ↑
18. ITALY MOVES TO RIGHT HISTORIC WRONG: New Bill Would Return Holocaust-Looted Art To Victims’ Families, YESHIVA WORLD NEWS(2026), accessible at https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/2572481/italy-moves-to-right-historic-wrong-new-bill-would-return-holocaust-looted-art-to-victims-families.html. ↑
19. Supra note 1 at 1. ↑
20. Supra note 7. ↑
21. Committee on Legislation Press Release, BULLETIN OF THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES AND COMMISSIONS (June 10, 2026), accessible at https://documenti.camera.it/leg19/resoconti/commissioni/bollettini/html/2026/06/10/48/comunic.htm#data.20260610.com48.bollettino.sede00020.tit00010. ↑
22. Elizabeth El Khoury, UCEI President Testifies Before Parliamentary Committee, LOOTEDART.COM (2026), accessible at https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=XX41QX864731. ↑
23. Id. ↑
24. Id. ↑
25. Id. ↑
26. Donna Sokol, The Italian Legislative Procedure, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (2013), accessible at https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/06/the-italian-legislative-procedure/. ↑
27. Jonah Davidov, Italian Parliament advances groundbreaking bill to return Holocaust-era looted art, JERUSALEM POST (2026), accessible at https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-902019. ↑