There have been multiple and conflict reports in the last 48 hours about whether the Kunstmuseum Bern had reached a decision to accept the inheritance from and appointment as heir by Cornelius Gurlitt. Gurlitt, who died in early May shortly after reaching an agreement with the Bavarian prosecutor concerning the 1,280 works of art seized from his apartment on suspicion of Nazi-looting connections, unexpectedly named the Swiss museum as the sole beneficiary of his will, and as his heir and representative. Just last week, the news was that the Kunstmuseum had resolved to decide by late November, no later than six months after being advised of Gurlitt’s bequest.
Nicholas O'Donnell
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Topics: Reuters, Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt Collection, Tages Anzeiger, Munich, Christoph Schäublin, Restitution, Bavaria, Ruth Gilgen Hamisultane, World War II, Swiss, Austria, Sonntagszeitung, Kunstmuseum Bern, Berner Zeitung, Zürich, Nazi Raubkunst, Münchner Kunstfund
To date, only one lawsuit has been filed in the United States related to the seizure from Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment of some 1,280 works of art, a story that broke a year ago with the concern about the objects’ Nazi-looting connections via his father Hildebrand Gurlitt (the view here last winter was that the longer Germany failed to address the situation comprehensively, the more likely such U.S. litigation became). That lawsuit, brought by David Toren, seeks the return of Two Riders on the Beach (Zwei Ritter am Strand), by Max Liebermann. Germany and Bavaria moved to dismiss the case yesterday, which is particularly puzzling given that among the very few determinations made by the Gurlitt Task Force (in August), it is that the Liebermann should be returned. The cynical view is that they are looking to forestall future claims, but it is past time for the painting to be returned.
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Topics: Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Breslau, Max Liebermann, Germany, Silesia, Gurlitt Collection, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, bailment, Entartete Kunst, FSIA, Restitution, Bavaria, David Toren, Zwei Ritter am Meer, Free State of Bavaria, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(2), Looted Art, World War II, Altmann v. Republic of Austria, Freistaat Bayern, Kunstmuseum Bern, Riders on the Beach, Federal Republic of Germany, Raubkunst, David Friedmann, Münchner Kunstfund
After numerous intimations by German Minister of Culture Monika Grütters, the German federal cabinet announced on Wednesday the official formation of the German Center for Cultural Property Losses (Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste). Citing its “awareness of the special responsibility for the reworking of Nazi art theft,” the ruling CDU coalition issued this statement (my translation):
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Topics: Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, Germany, Minister of Culture Monika Grütters, Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt Collection, Lex Gurlitt, Koordinierungsstelle für Lost Art in Magdeburg, Magdeburg, enteignete Kunst, Gurlitt, NS Raubkunst, Restitution, Task Force, Bundesländer, Lost Art, www.lostart.de, Limbach Commission, Center for Cultural Property Losses
Art Law Day at the Appraisers Association of America’s annual conference is now less than a month away. Held at the NYU Kimmel Center, this year’s event will be held on Friday November 7, 2014. Sullivan & Worcester LLP is excited to be a Friend of Art Law Day this year.
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Topics: Legislation, The Changing Laws for the Sale of Endangered Speci, Monica Kreshik, NYU SCPS, International Director of Restitution, The Frick Collection, miGavel Auctions/Lark Mason Associates, Resale Royalties, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Betty Krulik Fine Art Limited, American Royalties Too Act, Michael McCullough, Pearlstein & McCullough LLP, authentication, IRS/Tax Free Exchange, Richard Levin, New York University, American Alliance of Museums, Suzanne Goldstein Baker, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Art Law Day, Department of Environmental Conservation, Ulf Biscof, New Legislation for Authentication Experts, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, Christie's, Appraisal, Detroit Institute of Arts, Amy Goldrich, Betty Krulik, Restitution, Randi Schuster, Events, Christopher Marinello Art Recovery International L, Cahill Partners LLP, Elizabeth von Habsburg Winston Art Group, Monica Dugot, Appraisers Association of America, Marianne Rosenberg, Terry Shtob, Ford W. Bell, Craig Hoover, Bankruptcy and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Lark Mason, Kimmel Center, Wildlife Trade and Conservation Branch, Detroit Bankruptcy, Diane Wierbicki, Investment Property Exchange Services, Samuel Sachs II, Biscof & Paetow Rechtsanwälte, Withers Bergman LLP, Judith Bresler, Paul Rosenberg
Vienna’s Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum) has restituted 177 botanical drawings and prints to the heirs of Dr. Ernst Moritz Kronfeld. The restitution, while somewhat delayed following a 2011 recommendation by Austria’s Advisory Council under the country’s Law for the Restitution of Artworks from the Austrian National Museums (Bundesgesetz über die Rückgabe von Kunstgegenstände aus den Österreichischen Bundesmuseen), highlights the increasing sophistication of that Advisory Council, particularly compared to recent steps backward by the Limbach Commission in Germany. Austria, once a lightening rod for criticism about confronting wartime and Nazi provenance issues, returned these drawings because of the clear problems with trying to portray any 1941 conveyance by a Viennese Jew as an arms’ length transaction—even without direct evidence of coercion. Just as importantly, it brushed away the defense that the drawings had been acquired in good faith as an excuse to continued possession, a dramatic change from the perspective usually taken by civil law countries.
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Topics: Theresienstadt, Lvov, Nationalbibliothek, Galicia, Law for the Restitution of Artworks from the Austr, Germany, Nuremberg, Nazi Victims, Treblinka, Dr. Rudolf Engel, Naturhistorisches Museum, Henry David Thoreau, Hermann Goring, Hitler Youth, Mario Lanzer, Gauleiter, Dr. Ernst Moritz Kronfeld, National Library, Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl, Bundesgesetz über die Rückgabe von Kunstgegenständ, Restitution, Clara Levy, Hapsburg, Luxembourg, Vienna Natural History Museum, Ryk van der Schot, Empress Maria Theresia, World War II, The Three Graces, Franz Stefan von Lothringen, Lemberg, Ukraine, Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquinn, Rosalia Kronfeld, Austro-Hungarian empire, Drei Grazien, Lovis Corinth, Museums, Israeli Cultural Society, Austria’s Advisory Council, Gustav Klimt, Schönbrunn, Vienna, Anschluss, Welfenschatz, Baldur von Schirach, Limbach Commission
Throughout the Detroit bankruptcy and the attendant speculation about what role, if any, the collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts that is owned by the city should play, a parallel parlor game has been to try to guess what Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s endgame and motivation really was. He has dropped hints about the importance of the collection in helping the city emerge from bankruptcy, but his plan of adjustment did not include any sales or loans with the collection as art. Rather, it included what has come to be called the “Grand Bargain,” under which several foundations will pledge hundreds of millions of dollars (as will the State of Michigan) to keep the art safe from liquidation.
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Topics: Financial Guaranty Insurance Corporation, Chapter 9, Syncora Capital, FGIC, Judge Steven Rhodes, Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Bankruptcy, Nathan Bomey, Kevyn Orr, Litigation, Detroit Free Press, Museums, Detroit Bankruptcy, grand bargain
Recurring events involving public art have underscored the tension between that expression and the law. Banksy’s “residence” in New York last fall broached this subject, but this summer’s Brooklyn Bridge flag incident, and several new lawsuits asserting copyright in graffiti will test the bounds of what the law protects and what it permits. As Banksy says in one of his murals, "graffiti is a crime."
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Topics: Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, Ahol Sniffs Glue, David Anasagasti, Steel, City as Canvas, Moral Rights, Argentina, Public Art, Graffiti Art, Philippa Loengard, Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, Leonardo’s Last Supper, Columbia Law School’s Kernochan Center for Law Med, Chicago, Museum of the City of New York, VARA, Public Expression, Michael Bloomberg, American Eagle, Terry Gilliam, Banksy, 17 U.S.C. § 106A, Copyright, Buenos Aires, 5Pointz, Revok, Roberto Cavalli, vandalism, Reyes, Graffiti, The Atlantic, New York
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a Tax Court decision in a ruling that has major implications for estate planning and works of art. While the central basis for the decision in favor of the Estate of James Elkins was the inexplicable failure by the IRS to rebut the taxpayer’s evidence, the decision nonetheless offers guidance for an important estate planning tool: fractional interests. Eileen Kinsella has also analyzed the case at Art Net (I’m quoted) here.
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Topics: estate tax, Estate of James Elkins, fractional interest, Eileen Kinsella, GRIT, Tax Court, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Court of Federal Claims, Estate Planning, ArtNet, Grantor Retained Income Trust, Tax, Elkins
Argentina, Bond Payment Default, Contempt, and Art Restitution Claims: An Unlikely But Important Mix
When Judge Thomas P. Griesa of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) held Argentina in contempt on Friday for the South American nation’s default on bond payments, few people likely perked up with attention about the possible implication for art restitution. But with a bit of indulgence, the connection is more important than it might first seem.
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Topics: Banco de la Nación, Library, Judge Thomas P. Griesa, Bank of New York Mellon, Argentina, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Rebbe, Southern District of New York, Russian Federation, FSIA, Lubavitch, Restitution, A bond, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, default, Chabad, Paul E. Singer, Art Law Report
Sullivan & Worcester LLP's Art and Museum Law Group has published an important new client advisory about Massachusetts's fine arts consignment statute, G.L. c. 104A. With the recent decision in Plumb v. Casey et al. by the Supreme Judicial Court, it is more important than ever to understand what the law requires and provides. Certainly if a transaction has any connection to Massachusetts (whether through buyer, seller, agent, estate executor, etc.), or even if it is just in a state with a consignment statute whose courts may look to this opinion for guidance, we hope our readers will find the advisory helpful.
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Topics: Legislation, consignment, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Supreme Judicial Court, SJC, Bankruptcy Court, Sullivan & Worcester LLP, consignor, G.L. c. 104A § 2, Art and Museum Law Group, G.L. c. 104A § 1, U.C.C.-1 statement, U.C.C. Secretary of State, Plumb v. Casey, Chapter 7, Uniform Commercial Code
