A new lawsuit seeking to seize a painting by Van Gogh currently at the Detroit Institute of Arts for the show “Van Gogh in America,” a painting which the plaintiff alleges was unlawfully taken has brought back into focus the law in the United States that address immunity from seizure. That is to say, what are the circumstances under which a work of art loaned on exhibition—even if stolen property—might nonetheless have to be returned to the lender? The results, and the criteria, are often surprising to the casual viewer but are important to review for museums, collectors, and anyone involved in art loans.
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Topics:
Malevich,
Schiele,
22 U.S.C. § 2459,
Pinacoteca di Brera,
Museum of Modern Art,
Van Gogh,
IFSA,
Leopold Collection,
Portrait of Wally,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
State Department,
Detroit Institute of Art,
Brokerarte Capital Partners LLC,
The Reading Lady,
Liseuse De Romans,
George Caram Steeh,
Gustavo Soter,
The Novel Reader,
replevin
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
As I prepare for a trip to Vienna for next week’s International Bar Association Annual Meeting, there is some topical restitution news, but it is hardly good. The imminent incarceration of Stephan Templ, a journalist and historian, for the omission of another relative from his mother’s application for Holocaust compensation, is as bizarre as it is disheartening. One hopes that a pardon, his last available recourse, will soon be forthcoming.
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Topics:
Maria Altmann,
Reibpartie,
Robert Amsterdam,
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,
Der Standard,
Stephan Templ,
Nazi Looting,
Scrubbing Parties,
Ringstrasse,
Ambassador Manz,
Museum of Modern Art,
Holocaust,
Beethoven Frieze,
Lothar Furth,
Unser Wien: “Arisierung” auf österreichisch,
Heinz Fischer,
Restitution,
Elisabeth Kretschmer,
National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victi,
Egon Schiele,
World War II,
Eva Blimlinger,
Portrait of Wally,
Austria,
The Missing Image,
Natural History Museum,
Ruth Beckermann,
Gustav Klimt,
Albertinaplatz,
Our Vienna: “Aryanization” Austrian Style,
Kurt Hankiewicz,
Vienna,
Anschluss,
Baldur von Schirach,
Limbach Commission,
International Bar Association,
Tina Walzer
I am looking forward to next week’s Art Crime and Cultural Heritage symposium at NYU next month. I will be on a panel discussing the Gurlitt case moderated by Mel Urbach, along with Chris Marinello and Wesley Fisher. The program is as follows, and promises to be a fascinating event.
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Topics:
University of Kansas,
Megan Fontanella,
Jordan Arnold,
Klein & Solomon LLP,
International Foundation for Art Research,
Jo Backer Laird,
Amy Adler,
Sandra Cobden,
Alfred Flechtheim,
Betty Little,
NYU School of Law,
Shawnee State University,
Guggenheim Museum,
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP,
Amr Al Azm,
Christopher Robinson,
Marla Diaz,
ARIS Title Insurance Corporation,
Judd Grossman,
John Cahill,
Alice Farren-Bradley,
Inc.,
Boston University,
Art Recovery Group,
David Goldstein,
Eleonora Nagy,
Schiele,
Jane C. H. Jacob,
James Martin,
Pryor Cashman LLP,
Karl Geercken,
Judith Pearson,
Doreen Bolger,
Kevin Ray,
Museum of Modern Art,
Peter Herdrich,
Mel Urbach,
ARIS,
Chris Marinello,
III,
Pierre Ciric,
Arader Galleries,
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
William L Charron,
Christie's Inc.,
On the Shore of the Seine,
Spencer Tomkins,
W. Graham Arader,
K2 Intelligence,
MaryKate Cleary,
Laurie Rush,
Modern Sculpture Conservation LLC,
Ciric Law Firm PLLC; Holocaust Art Restitution Pro,
lston & Bird LLP,
James Butterwick,
Auctionata,
Restitution,
Colleen St Onge,
Jonathan Illari,
President’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee,
Asian Art Research & Appraisals,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Events,
Simon Hornby,
Senior Vice President and General Counsel,
Bonnie Magness-Gardiner,
Art Dealers Association of America Jane Levine,
Jacob Fine Art,
Wesley Fisher,
Harry Ettlinger,
Herrick Feinstein LLP,
Baltimore Museum of Art,
Portrait of Wally,
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens,
Nicholas O'Donnell,
National Stolen Art File and Art Crime Team,
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germa,
Francis O'Connor,
IFAR,
Sotheby's,
Bonhams,
The Heritas Group,
Ken Perenyi,
Patricia J. Graham,
Emily Kempin Professor of Law,
Whitney Museum of American Art,
Meridith Savona,
Tim Carpenter,
Vienna,
Megan Noh,
Butterwick Gallery LLC,
Paysage Bords de Seine,
Museum Security Network,
Leopold Museum,
Crozier Fine Arts Inc.,
Art Law Report,
Mari-Claudia Jiménez,
Sharon Flescher,
Michael Danti,
Holly Keris
I am pleased to be taking part in the upcoming Art Crime and Cultural Heritage symposium at NYU next month. I will be on a panel discussing the Gurlitt case moderated by Mel Urbach, along with Chris Marinello and Wesley Fisher. I’m very much looking forward to learning from my co-panelists and the other participants. Registration is available here.
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Topics:
University of Kansas,
Megan Fontanella,
Jordan Arnold,
Klein & Solomon LLP,
International Foundation for Art Research,
Jo Backer Laird,
Amy Adler,
Sandra Cobden,
Alfred Flechtheim,
Betty Little,
NYU School of Law,
Shawnee State University,
Guggenheim Museum,
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP,
Amr Al Azm,
Christopher Robinson,
Marla Diaz,
ARIS Title Insurance Corporation,
Judd Grossman,
John Cahill,
Alice Farren-Bradley,
Inc.,
Boston University,
Art Recovery Group,
David Goldstein,
Eleonora Nagy,
Schiele,
Jane C. H. Jacob,
James Martin,
Pryor Cashman LLP,
Karl Geercken,
Judith Pearson,
Doreen Bolger,
Kevin Ray,
Museum of Modern Art,
Peter Herdrich,
Mel Urbach,
ARIS,
Chris Marinello,
III,
Pierre Ciric,
Arader Galleries,
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
William L Charron,
Christie's Inc.,
Spencer Tomkins,
W. Graham Arader,
K2 Intelligence,
MaryKate Cleary,
Laurie Rush,
Modern Sculpture Conservation LLC,
Ciric Law Firm PLLC; Holocaust Art Restitution Pro,
lston & Bird LLP,
James Butterwick,
Auctionata,
Restitution,
Colleen St Onge,
Jonathan Illari,
President’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee,
Asian Art Research & Appraisals,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Events,
Simon Hornby,
Senior Vice President and General Counsel,
Bonnie Magness-Gardiner,
Art Dealers Association of America Jane Levine,
Jacob Fine Art,
Wesley Fisher,
Harry Ettlinger,
Herrick Feinstein LLP,
Baltimore Museum of Art,
Portrait of Wally,
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens,
Nicholas O'Donnell,
National Stolen Art File and Art Crime Team,
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germa,
Francis O'Connor,
IFAR,
Sotheby's,
Bonhams,
The Heritas Group,
Ken Perenyi,
Patricia J. Graham,
Emily Kempin Professor of Law,
Whitney Museum of American Art,
Meridith Savona,
Tim Carpenter,
Vienna,
Megan Noh,
Butterwick Gallery LLC,
Museum Security Network,
Leopold Museum,
Crozier Fine Arts Inc.,
Art Law Report,
Mari-Claudia Jiménez,
Sharon Flescher,
Michael Danti,
Holly Keris
The British Museum has announced that it has loaned to Russia one of the sculptures from the Parthenon that widely known as the “Elgin Marbles” after Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin who oversaw their removal from then-Ottoman occupied Greece in 1811-12. The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is the recipient of the loan, specifically, the sculpture of the river god Ilissos from the west pediment of the Parthenon.
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Topics:
cultural property,
Pandora’s box,
the 7th Earl of Elgin,
Temple of Zeus at Olympia,
George Clooney,
Russia,
Thomas Bruce,
Amal Alamuddin-Clooney,
Elgin Marbles,
river god Ilissos,
Museum of Modern Art,
Greece,
The British Museum,
Restitution,
Pausanias,
Parthenon Sculpture,
Portrait of Wally,
Austria,
The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,
Ottoman Empire,
Museums,
Attica,
New York
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed claims for ownership of Madame Soler by Pablo Picasso, currently at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Just as the relevance of Judge Jed Rakoff’s comments over another art restitution case brought by the heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn Bartholdy unexpectedly came to the fore recently, Judge Rakoff’s decision is now the most recent in a line of frustrations for the heirs of Mendelssohn Bartholdy, a victim of Nazi persecution in Berlin in the 1930s. The ramifications of this case may be fairly narrow, however, as the case was premised on allegations of specific transactions in New York rather than general allegations about the conduct of Germany. The claimants could appeal, or perhaps turn to the Limbach Commission if they could be heard (the Pinakothek is a subdivision of Germany for jurisdictional analysis, but it’s unclear at first blush if the Commission would view this claim as within its province).
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Topics:
Paul von Mendelssohn Bartholdy,
Berlin,
commercial activity exception,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Florence Kesselstatt,
Judge Jed Rakoff,
Halldor Soehner,
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat,
Julius Schoeps,
Upper East Side,
Prussia,
Max Liebermann,
Night Café,
Gurlitt Collection,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Preussen,
France,
State Paintings Collection,
Madame Soler,
Museum of Modern Art,
Edelgard von Lavergne-Peguilhen,
Van Gogh,
Munich,
Justin K. Thannhauser,
FSIA,
expropriation exception”,
Nazi persecution,
Boy Leading a Horse,
Restitution,
David Toren,
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung,
Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture,
Free State of Bavaria,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Pinakothek der Moderne,
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Bildung und Kult,
Bundesländer,
Altmann v. Republic of Austria,
Freistaat Bayern,
Le Moulin de la Galette,
Kurt Martin,
München,
Pablo Picasso,
Federal Republic of Germany,
Limbach Commission,
Wissenschaft und Kunst
As posted at the Art Law Report two weeks ago, a settlement of the IRS dispute over Robert Rauschenberg’s work “Canyon”—which incorporates a stuffed bald eagle, thus implicating criminal statutes prohibiting any sale or transfer of the national bird—has been announced publicly.
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Topics:
Bald Eagle,
Museum of Modern Art,
16 U.S.C. § 668,
Ralph Lerner,
16 U.S.C. § 668a,
Canyon,
Robert Rauschenberg,
IRS,
1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act,
Tax,
Ileana Sonnabend
