"We will attempt to overcome the veto," said liberal Yabloko deputy Mikhail Men, deputy chairman of the Duma's culture committee. "The law may be redrafted to create a distinction between art from our [wartime] allies and that confiscated from our enemies."
In vetoing the trophy art law, Yeltsin pointed out in a letter to Yegor Stroyev, chairman of parliament's upper house, that in its current form the bill not only rules out the return of expropriated art works to Germany, but could also make it difficult to exhibit the trophy art abroad without the risk of "difficult lawsuits."
"The bill seeks to solve the problem unilaterally ... without taking into account international norms of law," Yeltsin's letter said.
Trophy art has been the subject of controversy in the Duma for at least three years, said Men, as nationalist politicians have insisted that Russia is entitled to keep the art seized from Germany as compensation for huge losses suffered during World War II.
The bill seeks to establish a complex procedure for the return of trophy art, requiring a formal request from a foreign government for each piece, whose export must be approved by an act of parliament.
Parliament could overcome the presidential veto if both houses approve the bill again by a two-thirds majority, said Men. The bill was passed overwhelmingly on its last reading.
The Culture Ministry, however, warned that if the presidential veto were overturned, "we will get a law ... which will be detrimental to Russia," deputy culture minister Mikhail Shvydkoi told Interfax. Cultural relations could be soured if the Duma puts its foot down on the trophy art issue, said Shvydkoi, who urged the Duma to work towards creating a structure which would allow trophy art to be exchanged or returned on "a compensatory basis."
A spokesman for the German Embassy in Moscow said the German government "hoped that a constructive solution" would be reached over the return of trophy art.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is an important ally of Yeltsin's, said a source at the Embassy who did not wish to be identified. The Duma's tough stance on the captured art has proved highly embarrassing for Russia and a long-standing "thorn in the side" of otherwise good Russia-Germany relations, the source said.
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