Britain expected to come clean on Nazi-looted art

It is believed that lack of time has prevented the galleries and museums from conducting full audits of major silver, stamp, coin and firearm collections that have been acquired since 1933, when Hitler came to power.

The "suspect list" to be declared by the Tate includes famous works by Monet, Degas and Picasso.

The gallery is also currently facing a claim for an 18th-century painting, "View of Hampton Court," by Dutch master Jan Griffier the Elder.

Two brothers and their sister, who fled to England from their home in Dusseldorf, Germany, say the work was stolen after their father, a German Jewish banker, was shot by the Nazis in the 1930s.

The gallery says it has delayed a settlement on the grounds that restitution is a political matter and the government must decide how such claims should be handled.

In a related development, the British government announced last week that it is setting up a panel to adjudicate claims by Holocaust survivors and their heirs to artworks in national collections.

Arts Minister Alan Howarth said the government wants to create a system that would resolve questions of ownership that "arise from the terrible events of the Nazi era."

He hoped that the panel, which will include lawyers, historians and art specialists, will serve as an alternative to costly legal proceedings.

The moves in Britain come as other countries are returning Nazi-looted works.

France recently returned 13 works that were looted by the Nazis from Jewish-run galleries, while Germany has said that it wants to accelerate the return of art stolen by the Nazis.