The Hans Sachs collection that the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe ordered in March be returned to the Sachs heirs will be put up for auction in New York. The collection had more than 12,000 posters by artist that included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ludwig Hohlwein, Lucian Bernhard and Jules Cheret. The Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, a museum of German history, held for several decades parts of a poster collection was seized from Sachs in 1938. After his arrest and incarceration, Sachs fled the country with his family.
Nicholas O'Donnell
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Topics: Berlin, Lucian Bernhard, Guernsey’s Auctioneers & Brokers, Catherine Hickley, Hans Sachs, Bloomberg, Bundesgerichtshof, Ludwig Hohlwein, Restitution, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Karlsruhe, World War II, Arlan Ettinger, Deutsches Historisches Museum, New York
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has dismissed—for a second time—a lawsuit filed there by former attorney Edward Fagan seeking the restitution of various works of art in the National Gallery in Prague and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. A novel strategy of bringing the case not by the alleged heirs, but rather by a former lawyer in cooperation with those alleged heirs, was rejected by the court on its own initiative.
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Topics: Czechoslovakia, Restitution, World War II, Czech Republic
Please see our most recent client advisory from the Art & Museum Law Group at Sullivan & Worcester LLP. The advisory addresses recent statutory changes to and judicial interpretation of the law governing sales on consignment, including auctions in particular.
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Topics: consignment, Sullivan & Worcester LLP
For those of us trying to follow art law developments in Germany, particularly to get access to original source and court documents in German, Peter Bert’s Dispute Resolution in Germany Blog is a terrific source. Between the Hans Sachs collection case and the contuing fallout from the Wolfgang Beltracchi forgery scandal and the fictional “Jägers Collection,” Germany has had a busy year of art law prominence, particularly with regard to forgery issues. Two recent posts bear reading, both of which attach the original court opinions in German, for their interesting analysis.
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Topics: Forgery, Lempertz, Peter Bert, Germany, Hans Sachs, Wolfgang Beltracchi, Dispute Resolution in Germany, Copyright
Although this week's Restitution and Repatriation conference at DePaul was washed out by Hurricane Sandy, another terrific event is on the horizon next week. "Art Law Day" at New York University, hosted by the Appraisers Association of America, will be held on November 9, 2012 at NYU's Kimmel Center. The condensed schedule from the event's website is below. Wishing everyone in New York continued safety, we hope to see you there.
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Topics: Yuri Yanchyshyn, AAA, John Cahill, Donn Zaretzky, Inc., Art Law Day, Jane C. H. Jacob, ARIS, Ralph Lerner, Appraisal, Events, Elizabeth von Habsburg, Jacob Fine Art, Appraisers Association of America, Restitution and Repatriation, IFAR, Kimmel Center, connoisseurship, Winston Art Group, Gloria Velandia, Sharon Flescher, Judith Bresler
It is a busy fall for consignment law in New York. News has been making the rounds this month about a decision by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, New York’s intermediate appeals court. The Appellate Division ruled that an auctioneer must disclose the name of any owner who has consigned the work for sale, or a sale against a successful bidder cannot be enforced. The auction world is in an uproar, but the result actually derives from a version of a very old law called the Statute of Frauds about what has to be in writing for a contract to be enforceable, for reasons that have nothing to do with art or auctions.
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Topics: Legislation, consignment, New York General Obligations Law § 5-701, Ivan Petrovich Khlebnikov, Collections, Statute of Frauds, Albert Rabizadeh, William J. Jenack, auction
Looking forward to Monday's conference in Chicago at DePaul University College of Law, Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, entitled "Restitution and Repatriation: the Return of Cultural Objects." Lynn Nicholas, author of The Rape of Europa is the keynote speaker. If you like what you see at the Art Law Report-or even if you don't-I hope you will introduce yourself. I expect good attendance from some heavy hitters in the field.
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Topics: cultural property, Lynn Nicholas, DePaul University, Restitution, Restitution and Repatriation
The Art Law Report’s very first post was on the revival of efforts to pass federal legislation on resale royalties, yet there was little movement after that. Earlier this year, the California Resale Royalty Act was struck down on constitutional grounds, a case now on appeal.
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Topics: Resale Royalties, California Resale Royalty Act, Copyright
Our prior commentary has expressed support for Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act. The bill remains stalled in the Senate Judicary Committee.
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Topics: Senate Bill 2212, S.B. 2212, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
The New York Court of Appeals has rejected the must-watched effort by Nite Moves, a Albany-area strip club, to exempt itself from sales tax on the grounds that exotic dancing was protectable First Amendment expression. The high court ruled that the club failed to carry its burden to prve that the dances were “choreographed performances.” The quote of the day, however, goes to the dissent:
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Topics: First Amendment
