We were privileged to file today a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of our client, art dealer Alexander Khochinsky. The petition asks the Court for reinstatement of a lawsuit against Poland for lack of subject matter jurisdiction (i.e., sovereign immunity) for Poland’s effort to have Khochinsky extradited from New York as leverage to force him to relinquish a painting that he inherited from his father. The case invokes three provisions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1605 (the FSIA): the implicit waiver exception, the counterclaim exception, and the non-commercial tort exception. The basis on which we seek the Court’s review is simple: if the holding below is the law, then no one is safe in the United States from any number of rogue regimes that abuse the extradition system for discriminatory and persecutory reasons. To allow this decision to stand is a threat to any American. What if, for example, Turkey pursued a Christian American in similar fashion motivated by religious animus about owning a particular kind of art from the Ottoman Empire? What if the Taliban, now the de facto government of Afghanistan, declared a worldwide intention to find Jews in possession of Pashto cultural property? What if China declared American intellectual property to be revolutionary patrimony?
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Topics:
China,
Alexander Khochinsky,
Holocaust claims,
extradition,
FSIA,
"Girl with Dove",
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Poland,
Sullivan and Worcester LLP,
28 U.S.C. § 1605,
Operation Barbarossa,
Taliban,
Afghanistan,
Turkey,
Pashto
In the course of our work here, I like to call out books and articles that I feel are worthy of praise, usually the in the course of a particular post or issue. After a too-long stay on the corner of my desk awaiting time to read it, I finally finished a book published last year that should be an essential for any collector, or lawyer dealing with clients across borders. Entitled The Art Collecting Legal Handbook (Thomson Reuters), the book is edited by Bruno Boesch and Massimo Sterpi, both notable European practitioners in art and cultural affairs law, at Froriep in London and Studio Legale Jacobacci & Associati in Rome, respectively.
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Topics:
Legislation,
the Middle East,
looted property,
Forgery,
Auctions,
VAT,
Studio Legale Jacobacci & Associati,
authenticity,
London,
Sam Keller,
Julien Anfruns,
droite de suite,
Froriep,
Moral Rights,
Europe,
North America,
Holocaust claims,
California,
Fondation Beyeler,
Howard Kennedy FSI,
Thomson Reuters,
Asia,
Rome,
Restitution,
International Council of Museums,
Massimo Sterpi,
United States,
World War II,
Sabina von Arx,
1970 UNESCO Convention,
Morgan Stanley,
Art Fairs,
Publications,
Litigation,
due diligence,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
Museums,
Bruno Boesch,
1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Ex,
Daniel McClean,
New York
