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以色列组织寻找纳粹掠夺艺术品

International efforts are intensifying¹ to recover and identify items stolen by the Nazis² during World War II, including paintings, ceramics³, books and religious treasures.  In Israel, a committee is pressing local museums to search their collections for artwork looted by the Nazis.

国际间正在加强努力，寻找和指认二战期间遭纳粹窃取的艺术品，包括绘画、瓷器、书籍和宗教宝物。在以色列，一个委员会正在要求当地博物馆，从他们的馆藏中寻找被纳粹抢劫的物品。

Israeli authorities believe more than 1,000 pieces of artwork stolen by the Nazis were sent to Israel for safekeeping after World War II.

以色列当局表示，有超过1千件纳粹偷窃的艺术品，在二战之后被送到以色列保存。

An Israeli state-run committee has been assigned to track down unclaimed assets in Israel of Jews killed during the Holocaust⁴.

一个以色列国家委员会被指定追踪在以色列的无人认领资产，这些资产属于那些在大屠杀期间被杀害的犹太人。

On Thursday, the committee convened⁵ officials from Israel's major museums for a talk on the search effort.

这个委员会1月9号召开会议，将以色列主要博物馆的主管人员聚集在一起，讨论有关搜寻失窃艺术品的努力。

Israel Peleg is leading the committee.

"We know that after the war at least 400 pieces of art paintings reached the shores of Israel and the museum in Israel.  The Israel museum has already publicized it, and we believe that the research, the provenance⁶ research, should be done now by all the museums in Israel, which they are cooperating very carefully with us," said Peleg.

委员会主席以伊斯拉尔·佩雷格说： “我们知道战后至少有400幅绘画抵达以色列海岸及以色列博物馆。以色列博物馆已经公开过这件事，我们认为对这些艺术品出处的研究，现在应该由所有以色列博物馆来进行，他们也的确在审慎地与我们合作。“

Peleg voiced hope the unclaimed artwork would find its way to descendants of its owners.

佩雷格也对这些艺术品最终能物归原主、还给他们的后代子孙抱持希望。

"The idea of starting now this effort is a breakthrough in the effort to return to the rightful heirs of the Holocaust victims the pieces of art which belong to their families," he said.

佩雷格说：“现在来开始做这件事，是一个寻求把这些艺术品物归原主的工作的一种突破，它们应该被还给大屠杀受害者的合法继承人，这些物品属于他们的家人。

Wesley Fisher is with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which negotiates for restitution⁷ of Jewish-owned property.

犹太人向德国索赔协会的研究员卫斯理·费雪，对以色列的努力表示欢迎。索赔协会的工作，是谈判归还属于犹太人的财务。

He welcomed the Israeli effort.

"As we do our work in the claims conference and in the world Jewish restitution organization, in particular, we very often find that in regard to art works, Judaica, libraries and manuscripts, we cannot reach closure on what went where and find everything without knowing what went to Israel," said Fisher.

The country's largest museum, the Israel Museum, has had success in returning Nazi-looted art to its owners.

The museum houses 1,200 pieces of art stolen during World War II and shipped to Israel when its owners could not be found.  Ten of the pieces have since been handed over to their rightful families.

James Snyder is the museum's director.

"The Israel Museum, because we're in Israel, we feel that we need to be exemplary in the subject of restitution of art lost in World War II," said Snyder.

The issue of Holocaust victims' unclaimed assets in Israel made headlines three years ago.  At the time, one of Israel's major banks agreed to pay $37 million to survivors⁸ and heirs for funds deposited before World War II by Jews who later died in the conflict.