British Museum admits it has art looted by Nazis

The British Museum acknowledged yesterday a "compelling" claim that four Old Master drawings in its possession had been looted by the Nazis during the Second World War from a private collection.

The museum has studied the claim made in May by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe on behalf of the family of Dr Arthur Feldmann of Brno, now in the Czech Republic.Feldmann, a lawyer who died as a result of ill-treatment in a Nazi jail in 1941, had a renowned collection of more than 700 Old Master drawings, which were, the claim stated, seized by the Gestapo on 15 March 1939.

The four drawings involved were all acquired by the museum in the 1940s. The family members making the claim did not wish to be identified.

Carol Homden, speaking for the museum, said the claim was "extremely well-researched", and that the museum would be working with the commission to resolve it.