Mondex Corporation

Mondex Corporation is a Toronto-based company for the restitution of art and cultural artifacts looted during the Holocaust era. The company advocates on behalf of heirs to recover stolen art, and its practices have led to changes in restitution law and practices in various countries. Mondex was founded in 1993 by James Palmer. It is currently headed by Kamila Gourdie, who has served as the company's president since 2004.

Most of Mondex’s work is conducted under the auspices of the Washington Principles of Nazi-Confiscated Art (1998), which opened a new era of claims for restitution by the owners of looted art and their heirs. The Washington Principles were further supported by the United States’ Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016, which ensured that the restitution of Nazi-confiscated art was not unfairly prevented by previously existing statutes of limitations.

To date Mondex’s work and advocacy has led to the discovery and restitution of dozens of artworks looted during the Holocaust era, primarily in Europe and the United States. The firm works by commission, taking a percentage of the restored artifact's value.

Noted cases

Kandinksy's Painting With Houses and Changes to Dutch Restitution Practices

Mondex’s advocacy on behalf of the heirs of Wilhelmine and Robert Lewenstein, as well as Irma Klein Lewenstein, relatives of the Dutch Jewish art collector Emanuel Lewenstein and owners of Wassily Kandinsky’s Painting with Houses (Bild mit Häusern, 1909), led to the restitution of the painting and to a landmark change in the way Dutch governmental authorities assess restitution claims.

Mondex initially brought the claim on behalf of the heirs in 2013, seeking the return of a painting that had been involuntarily sold in The Netherlands in 1940, while the country had been occupied by the Nazis.