ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits the recent scandal that surrounded the planned exhibition of a private art collection assembled during the war by Emil G. Bührle, a Swiss industrialist, war-profiteer, and Nazi-sympathiser. It is only because of a public outcry that the curator, the museum and the local authorities asked experts to look into restitution claims made by members of the Jewish community. This case study, the chapter argues, is paradigmatic of a pattern of denial by the Swiss authorities. When they found themselves under mounting pressure from the wider public, they reacted by setting up panels of experts. Regrettably, the authorities’ main aim seems to have been to calm the situation rather than to get at the truth and raise public awareness.
