Let’s Not Talk about Terezin – Restitution of Nazi-Era Looted Art and the Tenuousness of Public International Law

access archives for more than fifty years, 15 due to the lack of political support to confront the full extent of the Nazi era spoliations in the polarized postwar world.16 Indeed, tensions during the Cold War years left little room for introspection into, or discussion about, Germany's wartime past.17 The willingness to declassify Nazi era documents in both the East and West-and to actually restitute looted artwork 18 -was only possible after the fall of the Iron Curtain.19 It is generally acknowledged that the collapse of communism and the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc played an important part in opening up the extensive Soviet archives on trophy art, 20 which provided key evidence for a great deal of the current 15.See Nancy H. Yeide, Provenance and Museums, in RESOLUTION OF CULTURAL PROPERTY DISPUTES, supra note 1, at 99; Paulina McCarter Collins, Comment, Has "The Lost Museum" Been Found?Declassification of Government Documents and Report on Holocaust Assets Offer Real Opportunity to "Do Justice" for Holocaust Victims