I was pleased to attend last week in Geneva “Building an Art Market for the Future—Guidelines for Countering Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Threats” hosted by the Fondation pour le Droit d’Art (Art Law Foundation) and the Art Law Centre of the University of Geneva. The conference was the official launch of the Responsible Art Market initiative, and offered valuable, market-focused discussion about the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in the art market. Refreshingly, the day’s panel discussions focused on best practices and goals, rather than the oft-heard lamentations about problems with the art market. The implicit point that came through was a powerful one: as both private sellers and law enforcement speakers explained, art dealers are not engaged in large-scale shadowy financial dealings. But art dealers and buyers are at serious risk of being used by criminals engaged in money laundering, which can have serious consequences. Because willful blindness is no defense, the conference and the initiative provided valuable practical advice.
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Topics:
Pierre Gabus,
Anne Laure Bandle,
Art Dealers Association of Switzerland,
Art Law Foundation,
Geneva,
Sandrine Giroud,
Luxembourg,
Switzerland,
Art Law Centre,
University of Geneva,
AML,
Terrorist financing,
Sylvia Furrer Hoffmann,
Ricardo Sansoletti,
Ursula Cassani,
Simon Studer,
Mathilde Heaton,
Fondation pour le Droit d’Art,
Jean-Bernard Schmid,
Rakhi Talwar,
Ralph Wyss,
Responsible Art Market initiative,
Money laundering,
Stiftung Kunsthalle,
Bern,
Deloitte
Recent news of “Freeports” opening in Delaware prompts a review of what these facilities are for, what they are not for, and where collectors and dealers can get themselves into trouble. When used carefully there are meaningful tax efficiency opportunities, but no one should think that they are or can be a one-stop way to avoid sales tax in particular. Thoughtful planning is the key.
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Topics:
New Hampshire,
Fritz Dietl,
David Arendt,
Delaware,
Geneva,
Oregon,
Luxembourg,
Pure of Love of Art Versus Mere Investment,
Customs,
Crozier Fine Arts,
yco International Ltd.,
Sales & Use Taxes,
Dennis Kozlowski,
Delaware Freeport,
Freeports,
Alaska,
Tax,
Montana
The Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Committee of the International Bar Association (of which I am a member) will be sponsoring an event March 26-27, 2015 at Sotheby’s in London. The IBA Individual Tax and Private Client Committee is also a co-sponsor, in connection with the IBA European Regional Forum. Sotheby’s is located at 34-35 New Bond Street in London.
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Topics:
Karen Sanig,
Daniel Simon Collyer Bristow,
Helly Nahmed Gallery,
The Princely Collections,
Lucian Simmons Steven Thomas,
Art Finance,
Mary Romano,
Rina Pantalony,
Philip Hoffman,
International Julius Baer,
Luke Dugdale,
Helly Nahmad,
UGGC Avocats,
Studio Legale Jacobacci & Associati,
Mark Cornell,
UK Government Art Collection,
ICOM,
Daniel Tunkel Howard Kennedy,
Peter Polak,
David Arendt,
Adrian Parkhouse,
Diana Wierbicki,
Paris,
Guy Simonius,
Bloomberg,
Johann Kräftner,
Art Cultural Institutions and Heritage Committee o,
Columbia University,
Geneva; Wendy Philips,
Herrick,
ARIS Title,
Melanie Gerlis The Art Newspaper,
Jasper Sharp,
Sandrine Giroud,
Cadell & Co,
Scotland Yard,
Lalive,
Jean-Francois Canat,
Houston Francesca von Habsburg,
1858 Ltd Art Advisory,
Viola Reikhel-Bolot,
UCLA School of Law,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary,
Stephen D Brodie,
Fine Art Wealth Management,
The Fine Art Fund Group,
Marlborough Contemporary,
Los Angeles,
Randall Willette,
Events,
Massimo Sterpi,
Luxembourg,
Sherri North Cohen,
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions,
Le Freeport,
Kunsthistorisches Museum,
LIECHTENSTEIN,
Adrian George,
Fabrizio Moretti,
Alfredo Perez,
Mishcon de Reya¸ George Bailey,
TEFAF Maastricht,
Mark Stephens,
Dick Ellis,
IBA Individual Tax and Private Client Committee,
Goldsmiths London University,
Andrew Renton,
Withers,
Sotheby's,
Legal Issues in Museum Administration,
Vaduz,
Zürich,
IBA,
Vienna,
Pure Love of Art versus Mere Investment,
New York
Vienna’s Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum) has restituted 177 botanical drawings and prints to the heirs of Dr. Ernst Moritz Kronfeld. The restitution, while somewhat delayed following a 2011 recommendation by Austria’s Advisory Council under the country’s Law for the Restitution of Artworks from the Austrian National Museums (Bundesgesetz über die Rückgabe von Kunstgegenstände aus den Österreichischen Bundesmuseen), highlights the increasing sophistication of that Advisory Council, particularly compared to recent steps backward by the Limbach Commission in Germany. Austria, once a lightening rod for criticism about confronting wartime and Nazi provenance issues, returned these drawings because of the clear problems with trying to portray any 1941 conveyance by a Viennese Jew as an arms’ length transaction—even without direct evidence of coercion. Just as importantly, it brushed away the defense that the drawings had been acquired in good faith as an excuse to continued possession, a dramatic change from the perspective usually taken by civil law countries.
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Topics:
Theresienstadt,
Lvov,
Nationalbibliothek,
Galicia,
Law for the Restitution of Artworks from the Austr,
Germany,
Nuremberg,
Nazi Victims,
Treblinka,
Dr. Rudolf Engel,
Naturhistorisches Museum,
Henry David Thoreau,
Hermann Goring,
Hitler Youth,
Mario Lanzer,
Gauleiter,
Dr. Ernst Moritz Kronfeld,
National Library,
Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl,
Bundesgesetz über die Rückgabe von Kunstgegenständ,
Restitution,
Clara Levy,
Hapsburg,
Luxembourg,
Vienna Natural History Museum,
Ryk van der Schot,
Empress Maria Theresia,
World War II,
The Three Graces,
Franz Stefan von Lothringen,
Lemberg,
Ukraine,
Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquinn,
Rosalia Kronfeld,
Austro-Hungarian empire,
Drei Grazien,
Lovis Corinth,
Museums,
Israeli Cultural Society,
Austria’s Advisory Council,
Gustav Klimt,
Schönbrunn,
Vienna,
Anschluss,
Welfenschatz,
Baldur von Schirach,
Limbach Commission
After the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets and the eponymous Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Stolen Art that came out of it, it is hardly surprising that a recurring theme has been to assess the progress of those nations that participated and signed on. Equally unsurprisingly, those assessments are usually more anecdotal than empirical, and usually arise out of a particular case or cases in the context of that country’s response.
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Topics:
Graham Bowley,
Macedonia,
Netherlands,
Terezin Declaration,
Mussolini,
Latvia,
Dr. Wesley A. Fisher,
Hungary,
ICOM,
Bulgaria,
Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spol,
Germany,
Bavarian Minister of Culture,
Nazi-looted art,
Die Welt,
Belarus,
Lex Gurlitt,
Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets,
France,
Dr. Ruth Weinberger,
Romania,
Baron Mor Lipot Herzog,
Winfried Bausbeck,
Belgium,
Slovakia,
Vichy,
World Jewish Restitution Organization,
Bundesrat,
Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Stolen Ar,
Gurlitt,
WJRO,
NS Raubkunst,
Restitution,
International Council of Museums,
Norway,
United States,
Luxembourg,
Looted Art,
World War II,
St. Petersburg,
Poland,
beschlagnahmte Kunst,
Ukraine,
Austria,
Serbia,
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germa,
Italy,
Bosnia,
New York Times,
Monika Grütters,
Slovenia,
Estonia,
Museum and Politics Conference,
National Gallery,
Museum of Fine Arts,
entzogogene Kunst,
Czech Republic
A conference was held last week at the Oskar Reinhart Museum in Winterthur, Switzerland, entitled “Fluchtgut: Geschichte, Recht und Moral” (Flight Goods: History, Law and Morality). The objective conference was described in its program as follows (my translation):
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Topics:
Expressionist,
Esther Tisa Francini,
Allied Collecting Points,
Südkurier,
Auctions,
Florian Weiland,
Oskar Reinhart Museum,
Dresden,
Karl Schmidt-Rotluff,
Nazi-looted art,
Robert Graetz,
Buchholz Gallery,
German Advisory Commission for the Return of Cultu,
Winterthur,
Entartete Kunst,
Beratende Kommission,
Curt Valentin,
Restitution,
Melissa Müller,
Luzern,
Clara Levy,
Farm in Dangast,
Fluchtgut: Geschichte Recht und Moral,
Lucas Elmenhorst,
Luxembourg,
Looted Art,
World War II,
Lucerne,
Switzerland,
degenerate art,
Handelsblatt,
Lost Lives Lost Art Jewish Collectors Nazi Art The,
Galerie Fischer,
Imke Gielen,
Washingtoner Prinzipien,
Jutta Limbach,
Washington Principles,
Drei Grazien,
Flight Goods: History Law and Morality,
Lovis Corinth,
Monika Tatzkow,
Three Graces,
Bavarian State Painting Collections,
Raubkunst,
Hans Posse,
Limbach Commission,
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
The German Advisory Commission for the Return of Cultural Property Seized as a Result of Nazi Persecution, Especially Jewish Property (Beratende Kommission) has issued its latest decision concerning allegedly Nazi-looted art in German museums. For the second case in a row after the widely (and wisely) derided opinion not to restitute the Welfenschatz or Guelph Treasure at the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, the commission (known for its presiding member, former German Supreme Constitutional Court judge Jutta Limbach) has recommended against restitution, this time over the claim by heirs of Clara Levy to The Three Graces (Drei Grazien) by Lovis Corinth (1902/1904). The decision (available only in German) is riddled with poor logic and basic historical errors. In short, while it may be that the painting was indeed delivered to Clara Levy’s daughter in the United States at Clark’s express instruction, that is far less clear than the commission states, and its decision further makes a number of assumptions about the circumstances of Jews in occupied or about-to-be occupied territories that undermine its credibility considerably.
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Topics:
Berlin,
Else Bergmann,
Schleifmühle,
Hildebrand Gurlitt,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Ludwig Levy,
Fritz Levy,
Rita Hubbard,
Germany,
Nazi-looted art,
bill of lading,
Especially Jewish Property,
Buchholz Gallery,
Madame Soler,
German Advisory Commission for the Return of Cultu,
San Francisco,
Entartete Kunst,
Beratende Kommission,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
FSIA,
Curt Valentin,
expropriation exception”,
Gurlitt,
Restitution,
Max Huggler,
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,
Clara Levy,
Sigfried Rosengart,
Luxembourg,
Henry Zacharias,
Compagnie Generale Transatlantique Hol Lesquette,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Pinakothek der Moderne,
degenerate art,
beschlagnahmte Kunst,
Jutta Limbach,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Drei Grazien,
Pablo Picasso,
Lovis Corinth,
Museums,
Three Graces,
Bavarian State Painting Collections,
Federal Republic of Germany,
Paula Levy,
Kurt Buchholz,
Welfenschatz,
Limbach Commission,
New York,
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
