New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law a new requirement requiring museums to indicate publicly any object in their collection that was displaced by the Nazis as part of what Congress has rightly called the largest organized theft of art in human history. The significance of this new rule is clear: New York is the center of the art world, and its museums hold a unique place of prominence. As readers of this blog or of my book A Tragic Fate-Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art know, my view has long been that American museums vary widely in their candor and proactive approach to the issue of Nazi-looted art in their collections. Many have shown admirable initiative in probing their collections, while others have shown a regrettable passivity in waiting to receive and then deflect claims. Whether this bill will move the needle on that balance is the question. Transparency and disclosure have been the defining goals of the modern restitution era. This new law serves many of those ideals, but some unintended consequences may follow.
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Topics:
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
American Alliance of Museums,
Nazi-looted art,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets,
Supreme Court,
Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art,
AAM,
Museum of Modern Art,
Nuremberg race laws,
Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Stolen Ar,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Washington Department of Labor and Industries,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
AAMD,
Military Government Law 59,
State Department,
Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act,
HEAR Act,
A Tragic Fate,
Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art,
Governor Kathy Hochul,
Reich Citizenship Law,
Animal House,
Kevin Bacon
The Appellate Division First Department in New York has affirmed the trial court’s ruling in Reif v. Nagy that the heirs of Viennese actor and Holocaust victim Franz Friedrich (Fritz) Grünbaum are entitled to the return of two Egon Schiele drawings, Woman Hiding her Face (1912) and Woman in a Black Pinafore (1911). The ruling is a momentous victory for the Grünbaum heirs, and features several recurring characters in many Nazi-looted restitution disputes. We were doubly gratified to see the First Department’s citation to our own case, Philipp v. F.R.G., 894 F.3d 406 (D.C. Cir. 2018) for the proposition that sales under duress are void and violate international law consistent with the policies of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2016. It is a landmark ruling and a testament to the perseverance of the Grünbaum heirs and their legal team.
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Topics:
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Galerie St. Etienne,
Nazi-looted art,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Galerie Gutekunst,
Holocaust,
Fritz Grünbaum,
NS Raubkunst,
Egon Schiele,
Mathilde Lukacs,
Franz Kieslinger,
Anschluss,
Welfenschatz,
HEAR Act,
Ankerwycke,
A Tragic Fate,
Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art,
Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016,
Woman in a Black Pinafore,
Woman Hiding her Face,
Seated Woman With Bent Left Leg (Torso),
Reif v. Nagy,
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,
Eberhard Kornfeld,
Philipp v. F.R.G.,
New York Law Journal,
Gutekunst & Klipstein,
Jonathan Petropoulos
One of the longest-running court cases in the United States about art looted by the Nazis has been decided in favor of the current possessor, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, an instrumentality of the Kingdom of Spain. The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruled on April 30, 2019 against the heirs of Lilly Cassirer, a German Jew whom the Nazis targeted in 1939 for a forced sale of Rue Saint–Honoré, après-midi, effect de pluie (1892). The ruling is the second time that the museum has prevailed in the District Court as the owner of the painting under Spanish law, now on the grounds the museum did not know of the painting’s looting history when it acquired the work and that it held the work publicly for long enough to become its owner even though it had been stolen. The ruling, while favorable to the museum in this case, confirms important principles about the inability of successive possessors to acquire good title to artworks stolen by the Nazis, and the importance of diligence and pursuing questions raised by red flags in the chain of title. Notable as well was the Court’s pointed criticism of Spain for failing to adhere to the spirit of the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, and Spain’s failure to “comply with its moral commitments.”
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Topics:
Walter Feilchenfeldt,
Third Reich,
Terezin Declaration,
Gestapo,
Lilly Cassirer,
Claude Cassirer,
Jacques Goudstikker,
Nazi-looted art,
Czechoslovakia,
Spain,
Washington Principles,
Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen- Bornemisza,
A Tragic Fate,
Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art,
Reichskammer der bildenden Künste,
flight taxes,
Rue Saint–Honoré,
Julius Cassirer,
Paul Durand-Ruel,
Ludwigstrasse,
Dr. Cassirer and Co. Kabelwerke,
Jakob Scheidwimmer,
Sydney Schoenberg,
Hahn Gallery,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum,
Military Government Law No. 59,
Reich Chamber of the Visual Arts,
Ari Walter Kampf,
Eugen Kampf,
Knoedler & Co. Gallery,
encubridor
I am pleased to report that A Tragic Fate—Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art (Ankerwycke) has been named one of Kirkus Reviews’ 100 Best Indie books of 2017.
A Tragic Fate received a star review from Kirkus in June, one of only 10% of reviews to receive that designation. Now, A Tragic Fate has been honored as a selected “Best of 2017” from among those small number of starred review.
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Topics:
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
A Tragic Fate,
Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art,
Kirkus Reviews
I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking about my book A Tragic Fate: Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art (now available in both hardcover and Kindle edition) and related topics on September 13, 2017 at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London and the Institute of Art and Law. Entitled “Nazi-Looted Art: From Fair and Just Solutions to Litigation,” I will give an overview of the topic of the intersection between legal and ethical challenges that have surrounded efforts to restitute art looted by the Nazis and their allies. A panel discussion will follow with experts Tony Baumgartner of Clyde & Co. (and a member of the UK Spoliation Advisory Panel), Charlotte Woodhead (Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick and an instructor at the Institute of Art and Law) and Gregor Kleinknecht of Hunter Solicitors. There will be a reception and an opportunity to buy and have copies of the book signed.
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Topics:
Nazi-looted art,
Events,
A Tragic Fate,
Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art,
Tony Baumgartner,
Clyde & Co.,
Institute of Art and Law,
Centre for Commercial Law Studies,
Queen Mary University of London,
From Fair and Just Solutions to Litigation,
Charlotte Woodhead,
Gregor Kleinknecht,
Hunter Solicitors
The following is from the Kirkus Reviews starred review of A Tragic Fate--Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art (emphasis added)
A comprehensive review of United States court cases involving art that was plundered by Nazis.
Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime was always keenly attuned to the power of cultural symbolism and eager to find new ways to disenfranchise Jewish people. These two preoccupations converged in their looting of privately owned art between 1933 and 1945. Some treasures were brazenly confiscated, while others were purchased at steep, coerced discounts. In the last few decades, there’s been growing interest in this large-scale larceny, and yet much of the stolen art will likely never be returned to its original owners. Debut author O’Donnell, an attorney, calls this the “central paradox posed by disputes in the last twenty years.” In this book, he diligently catalogs the many moral and judicial reasons for this absurdity, as well as the evolution of laws regarding claims. His study specifically focuses on cases that resulted in litigation in America, providing an exhaustive account of each and arguing that such litigation can be an effective legal strategy, despite complaints to the contrary. O’Donnell also includes discussions of landmark moments in art-restitution law, such as the London Declaration in 1943, the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets in 1998, and the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016, which was introduced in the U.S. Senate. The United States emerges in O’Donnell’s account as an early, forceful leader in international art restitution, despite the fact that some of its own laws, and even the Fifth Amendment, can complicate victims’ options. His mastery of the relevant law is nothing short of stunning, and his meticulous parsing of legal detail leaves no stones unturned.
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Topics:
Nazi-looted art,
Books,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
A Tragic Fate,
Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art,
Kirkus Reviews
New book explores the historical, ethical, and legal consequences of stolen art
I am pleased to announce that my book A Tragic Fate—Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art (Ankerwycke/ABA Publishing ) is available for purchase and delivery. I am proud to have composed the first comprehensive overview of looted art disputes in the United States, grounded in the historical and ethical perspectives that have shaped the debate over time. This has been a fascinating project that am very excited to share. As I hope readers of the blog will agree, my effort is always to provide a resource that those of general interest will find engaging but not hypertechincal, and which practioners will find useful as a resource.
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Topics:
Catherine Hickley,
Nazi-looted art,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Books,
Georgina Adam,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Art Law Report,
ABA Publishing,
Ankerwycke,
A Tragic Fate,
Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art
