I was honored to take part in a symposium last February at the University of Kansas School of Law entitled “A Museum’s Purpose,” which addressed a variety of cultural property related topics. KU was a wonderful host, and Lawrence is a charming town. I spent a great weekend in Kansas City (which was perfect aside from the then-recent Chiefs Super Bowl win-Go Pats!), saw a Jayhawks basketball game, and even visited the grave of Dr. James Naismith, who invented the great sport of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts.
I am pleased to announce that the article I wrote for the symposium has been published in the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy. Entitled “Refuge in Exile—the Peculiar Category of Fluchtgut and Art Transferred by Victims in Flight from Nazi Persecution,” my paper seeks to address the legal status of works that changed hands in the Nazi era that are not strictly covered by the more familiar frameworks of Nazi expropriation and forced sales that have been the focus of most of the discussion since the Washington Conference in 1998, and propose a judicial and analytical framework to deal with them. In my own practice this year, the Allentown Cranach story is an illustrative example.
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Topics:
University of Kansas,
South Texas College of Law,
Washington Conference Principles,
UCLA School of Law,
Nazi persecution,
flight goods,
Derek Fincham,
Fluchtgut,
Dr. James Naismith,
Lauren Van Schilfgaarde,
MacKenzie Mallon,
Michael Hoeflich,
Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy,
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Megan Gannon
I won’t be in the neighborhood, but the Oskar Reinhart Museum in Winterthur (Switzerland) is putting on a conference for the second year in a row on August 31. 2015 wrestling with the issue of “flight goods” in particular. “Flight goods” refers to property that was not stolen outright, nor sold under duress, but left behind because of a flight in haste from persecution. Awareness has increased in recent years about this as a category of looted property to be addressed. As with other categories, issues of law, morality, and the rights of subsequent good faith owners/possessors make for interesting discussions. Notable presenters include Matthias Frehner, whose Kunstmuseum Bern is grappling with the Gurlitt bequest, and Anja Heuss, whose Staatsgalerie Stuttgart recently restituted a work to the heirs of I. Rosenbaum. All the speakers and topics look excellent.
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Topics:
Berlin,
Dr. Peter Raue,
Walter Feilchenfeldt,
Esther Tisa Francini,
Museum Rietberg,
Olaf Ossmann,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Marc Fehlmann,
Art Dealers Association of Switzerland,
Between Fairness and Justice for Successors and Po,
Oskar Reinhart Museum,
Anja Heuss,
Kulturstiftung der Länder,
Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste,
Claudius Ochsner,
Matthias Frehner,
Alexander Jolles,
Winterthur,
Dr. Stephanie Tasch,
Kunsthandelsverband der Schweiz,
Karin Salm,
Universität Salzburg,
Thomas Buomberger,
Restitution,
Events,
Johannes Nathan,
Looted Art,
World War II,
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart,
Switzerland,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Andrea Baresel-Brand,
flight goods,
Zürich,
Prof. Dr. Georg Graf,
Radio SRF 2,
I. Rosenbaum,
Sibylle Ehringhaus
