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Dissolution of the Tripartite Gold Commission

Notice of Closure and Joint Statement of the Governments of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, September 9, 1998

Notice of Closure

On September 27, 1946, as announced in the State Department Bulletin on September 29, 1946, the Governments of the United States of America, France, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland established the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold in order to implement Part III of the Agreement on Reparation signed in Paris on 14 January 1946.

The Commission having completed its work, the three governments hereby announce the formal dissolution of the Commission on September 9, 1998, and the cessation of the functions of the three Commissioners on that same date.

The above text also is being published in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Francaise and the London Gazette.

Joint Statement

Joint Statement of the Governments of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States on Dissolution of Tripartite Gold Commission.

1. The Governments of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States today announce the closure of the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold. The Governments established the Commission in Brussels on 27 September 1946 to help them fulfill their duties under Part III of the Paris Agreement of 1946.¹

A joint announcement published by the three Governments formally established the Commission and set forth its Terms of Reference. Consistent with the Agreement’s goal of arranging “an equitable procedure for the restitution of monetary gold” which would be pooled and distributed among participants in proportion to their losses, the three Governments charged the Commission with receiving claims for looted monetary gold, adjudicating those claims, and making distributions from the monetary gold pool assembled by the Governments.

2. The Commission received claims from Albania, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Yugoslavia. Following extensive deliberations conducted in accordance with its Terms of Reference, the Commission established as valid claims amounting to 16,527,422.101 troy ounces/514,060.2909 kgs of gold. In reaching its determinations, the Commission treated its adjudicatory responsibilities with the utmost care and diligence, and each claim received the Commission’s close and deliberate attention. In accordance with the Commission’s Terms of Reference, the costs of running the Tripartite Commission were deducted from the Gold Pool. The total gold deducted for this purpose was 43,880.424 troy ounces/1,364.8337 kgs, some 0.406% of the gold pool.

3. With one exception, all distributions from the gold pool have now been concluded and waivers of claims have been received from each of the recipient countries. A small remaining share of gold and currency allocated to the successor states of the former Yugoslavia has not yet been distributed, but will be held by the three Governments pending agreement among those successor states on its disposition. The Commission has delivered a final report on its work to the three Governments, which have in turn arranged for its delivery to each of the parties to the Paris Agreement. Accordingly, the Commission’s work is now completed, and its archives have been transferred to Paris, and will be made available to the public.

4. The Tripartite Commission was able to meet about 64% of the validated claims on the gold pool. The three Governments had assembled the gold pool from various sources found on territories previously under the control of Nazi Germany and from certain third countries to which gold had been transferred from Germany. Through these combined efforts, the Governments were able to assemble a monetary gold pool amounting to 10,817,021.139 ounces/336,446.97kgs.

5. In the view of the three Governments, it is appropriate under the circumstances that prevail today—over 50 years after the conclusion of the Paris Agreement—to consider the process of collecting gold for the gold pool complete. At the same time, the three Governments remain mindful of the possibility that additional Nazi-looted gold could yet come to light. The three Governments envisage that any such gold would be handled in a manner consistent with the Paris process.

Agreement on Reparation from Germany, on the Establishment of an Inter-Allied Reparation Agency and on the Restitution of Monetary Gold, done at Paris, entered into force 24 January 1946.

¹ Agreement on Reparation from Germany, on the Establishment of an Inter-Allied Reparation Agency and on the Restitution of Monetary Gold, done at Paris, entered into force 24 January 1946.

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