With reports that Russia is considering abandoning the nearly five year old embargo on loans of cultural artifacts into the United States, the cited connection between that willingness and the recent passage of the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (FCEJICA) bears closer scrutiny that it has received to date. If the unnecessary embargo were to come to an end it would be welcome news, but Russia’s claim that the new law is the reason is hard to square with the history of the issue. It cannot be stated emphatically enough that the new law makes Russian art loans no more or less safe from seizure than they were before, because the law governing seizure of cultural objects (the Immunity from Seizure Act, or IFSA) has not changed. Russia’s penchant for framing the question as something for which it needed protection is thus frustrating because it is simply incorrect. The Russian loan embargo has been political theater from the time in began in 2012 in retaliation after Russian defendants lost a key litigation in Washington, DC, and the new law was passed in response to events that had nothing to do with Russia.
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Topics:
Alfred Flechtheim,
Russia,
22 U.S.C. § 2259,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
28 U.S.C. 1605(a)(3),
FSIA,
IFSA,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
Chabad,
Welfenschatz,
Malevich v. City of Amsterdam,
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional
Congress has passed and President Obama is expected to sign two bills related to looted art and the availability of U.S. courts to hear disputes over them. The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2016 and the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Clarification Act (FCEJCA, for lack of a handy acronym) were both passed without objection both the House of Representatives on December 10, 2016, and are expected to be signed by President Obama shortly. The HEAR Act is a major shift in the law of Nazi-looted art claims specifically, while the FCEJCA is controversial but unlikely to have a broad impact one way or another. It is perhaps most remarkable that in an era of unique partisanship and political polarization, members of Congress from both parties and the President agreed on anything, let alone unanimously (sponsors include such unusual allies as Ted Cruz, Richard Blumenthal, John Cornyn, and Charles Schumer).
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Topics:
Legislation,
Alfred Flechtheim,
Russia,
Nazi-looted art,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
22 U.S.C. § 2459,
FSIA,
expropriation exception”,
NS Raubkunst,
Restitution,
World War II,
State Hermitage Museum,
Charles Schumer,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
Chabad,
28 U.S.C. § 1605,
John Cornyn,
Welfenschatz,
Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act,
Richard Blumenthal,
Ted Cruz,
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional,
Mikhail Piotrovsky,
Politico,
Anita Difanis
