The federal register this week noted the addition on November 27, 2012 of Charles Schumer, New York’s senior Senator, as a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, the proposed amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act that would exempt from the FSIA the loan of certain cultural objects as a basis to invoke U.S. federal court jurisdiction. The bill has already been passed by the House of Representatives. After passage in march and referral to the Senate Judiciary Committee (on which it should be noted, Schumer sits), their has been no news of the bill’s progress.
Charles Schumer’s Co-Sponsorship of Senate Bill 2212 Could Signal Movement
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on November 29, 2012 at 3:59 AM
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Legislation, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immun, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, FSIA, Senate Bill 2212, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Charles Schumer, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity, Art Law Report
Happy (early) Birthday to the Art Law Report!
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on September 14, 2012 at 6:18 AM
We launched the Art Law Report one year ago tomorrow. Several dozen posts, thousands of visitors and many more views later, a very special thank you to everyone who has read and followed the blog. The connections made literally all around the world are humbling and enlightening. We continue to strive to provide an interesting selection of legal updates and issues, while offering an opinion and perspective that tries to improve the understanding both of those familiar with legal concepts, and those less so. The continuing developments in copyright, FSIA, immunity from seizure, and other resitution issues in particular are certainly keeping us on our toes, and collections issues like the Barnes case are never too far away either. Your links and comments are appriated, and we will keep linking to all those viewpoints from which we are learning too. Here's to another year of substantive conversation.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: cultural property, Immunity from Seizure, Collections, FSIA, Restitution, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Copyright, Immunity from Seizure Act, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity, Art Law Report, Barnes Foundation
U.S. Asks Court Not to Sanction Russian Defendants in Chabad Library Case—What Now?
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on September 5, 2012 at 1:14 PM
Casting further doubt on the practical possibility of using the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to recover cultural artifacts, the U.S. Government has at long last weighed in on the Chabad plaintiffs’ request for contempt sanctions against the Russian defendants, defendants who have defied for more than two years a judgment to return the library of the late Menachem Schneerson. Rightly or wrongly, this is another example of the waning utility of the FSIA to seek restitution of works held abroad, and does not bode well for the ongoing embargo by Russian museums against cultural artifact loans to the United States.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Russian art embargo, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, FSIA, Restitution, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Chabad, Art Law Report
Best Case for Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (S.B. 2212) May Have been Made by its Sponsors
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on June 5, 2012 at 5:23 AM
Perhaps lost in the coverage about Senate Bill 2212 (the Art Law Report no less than anyone else) to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to preclude claims against defendants whose “commercial activity” is limited to the loan of artwork whose ownership is in dispute, is the case made by the sponsors of the bill themselves, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) and Orrin Hatch (R, UT).
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Nazi stolen art, Malewicz v. City of Amsterdam, Dianne Feinstein, Immunity from Seizure, 28 U.S.C. 1605(a)(3), FSIA, Restitution, Orrin Hatch, Senate Bill 2212, World War II, IFSA, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
The Other Von Saher Shoe Drops: Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain Dismissed Under Foreign Affairs Preemption
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on June 4, 2012 at 12:50 PM
An emerging new defense to wartime art restitution claims has claimed another case. Although still confined to one district in California, the trend of dismissing such claims as better suited to resolution through the foreign affairs operations of the federal government simply cannot be ignored; wartime claims already struggling to overcome statutes of limitations could be in real trouble. The procedural history is complex, but the effect could be sweeping.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Legislation, Nazi Germany, Lilly Cassirer, Rue Saint-Honoré après-midi effet de pluie, California Code of Civil Procedure Section 338, conflict preemption, FSIA, Preemption, Restitution, field preemption, Goudstikker, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Von Saher v. Norton Simon Museum, Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain, California Code of Civil Procedure 354.3
Court in Chabad Library Case Solicits Views of the United States on the Foreign Relations Impact of Holding Russia in Contempt
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on May 24, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Despite some predictions (!) of a swift ruling on the Chabad plaintiffs' motion for contempt for the Russian state library defendants' refusal to comply with an order two years ago to return the library of Menachem Schneerson, the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC today solicited the views of the United States on the possibility of holding the Russian defendants in contempt for their non-compliance with the orders of the Court and their general disregard of the legal proceedings. Russian state museums have refused for more than a year to lend cultural objects into the U.S. because of the ruling, despite multiple and unassailable levels of assurances that loans of objects other than the Schneerson library are safe from any seizure related to the Chabad case.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Russian art embargo, Collections, FSIA, Restitution, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Chabad
Despite Criticism of S.B. 2212’s Proposed Amendment to the FSIA, New Law Would Not Enable Stolen Art
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on May 24, 2012 at 6:04 AM
Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times this week addressed Senate Bill 2212, (the “Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act”) this week, a bill approved in March by the House of Representatives.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Legislation, Russian art embargo, Nazi stolen art, Russia, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 22 U.S.C. § 2459, Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue, Collections, FSIA, Restitution, World War II, IFSA, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Portrait of Wally, Immunity from Seizure Act, New York Times, Chabad, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
Portrait of Wally in Hindsight: What did it Really Change?
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on April 25, 2012 at 1:53 PM
A new piece at the Art Newspaper reflects on the importance of the Portrait of Wally case. Wally was seized in 1998 by customs officials on the theory that it was stolen property when imported into the U.S. The painting sat in a warehouse for 12 years, until a settlement returned the painting to Vienna in 2010 and a payment to Lea Bondi's heirs was made. I recall well the citywide celebrations in the Austrian capital when the painting returned; banners on lampposts proclaimed Bildnis Wally kehrt zurück—Portrait of Wally returns!
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Maria Altmann, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, Malewicz v. City of Amsterdam, The Art Newspaper, 22 U.S.C. § 2459, FSIA, IFSA, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Portrait of Wally, S.B. 2212, Immunity from Seizure Act, Customs, Gustav Klimt, Vienna
Commentary Takes Shape on S.B. 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on April 11, 2012 at 12:47 PM
It’s been a few weeks since the House passed the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (H.R. 4086) and sent it on to the Senate for consideration as S.B. 2212. It has bipartisan sponsorship there (Dianne Feinstein and Orrin Hatch), but no word yet on when it will be put to a vote.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Girolamo Romano, Dianne Feinstein, Nazi-looted art, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1603, 22 U.S.C. § 2459, Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue, Hermann Goring, Collections, FSIA, Restitution, 19 U.S.C. § 1595a, Schneerson library, Orrin Hatch, Senate Bill 2212, World War II, IFSA, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Portrait of Wally, Immunity from Seizure Act, Customs, Chabad, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act: House Votes to Amend FSIA to Exclude Artwork Loan as Basis for Jurisdiction
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on March 22, 2012 at 9:15 AM
The House of Representatives approved the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act on March 19, 2012, to remove the display of a work of art in the United States as basis to sue a foreign sovereign here. The law touches on important distinctions between immunity from suit—when a party cannot be sued at all—from immunity from seizure—when a particular object or asset cannot be seized.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: Legislation, Immunity from Seizure, FSIA, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, House of Representatives, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity, State Department
