Der Spiegel reports today (link in German) about how German museums are joining the chorus of frustration about the lack of information about the Hildebrand and Cornelius Gurlitt collection find. From this perspective, this development is not a surprise. I was speaking to an international law class last night at Sarah Lawrence College, and one of the students asked me what the reaction in Germany would be. My feeling was that sooner rather than later, the German museum community, and likely the federal government, will push for a forward-looking solution. Present-day Germany takes questions about the Holocaust quite seriously, and for this collection to have turned up in Germany is sparking an embarrassment that could lead to more decisive action. The problem right now seems to be that everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move.
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Topics:
Jeu de Paume,
unbekannte Meisterwerke,
February 13 1945,
FAZ,
Focus,
Hildebrand Gurlitt,
Dresden firebombing,
Max Fisher,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
S. Lane Faison,
Linz Führermuseum,
Munich Central Collecting Point,
Monopol,
Wiesbaden Collecting Point,
Dresden,
HARP,
Reinhard Nemetz,
Max Liebermann,
WWII,
Monuments Men,
Gurlitt Collection,
Max Beckmann,
Otto Dix,
Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Naz,
Auktionshaus Lempertz,
Entartete Kunst,
Fine Arts and Archives Program,
Nazis,
Marc Chagall,
Organisation Todt,
Paul Klee,
Entdeckung verschollener Kunst,
beschlagnahmte Bilder,
Dresdner Bank,
Belvedere,
Fritz Todt,
Holocaust Art Project,
Hamburg Kunstverein,
MFAA,
Roberts Commission,
Angela Merkel,
Restitution,
Wien,
Monuments Fine Arts and Archives,
Selbstporträt,
World War II,
degenerate art,
Erben,
Raubkunst-Bildern,
Portrait of Wally,
Washi,
Löwenbändiger,
Austria,
Franz Marc,
Oskar Kokoschka,
Washington Principles,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
München,
Pablo Picasso,
Dr. Herman Voss,
Museums,
Kristallnacht,
Riders on the Beach,
Hans Posse,
Nazi Raubkunst,
Vienna,
Alfred Weidinger,
Henri Matisse,
Self Portrait,
Emil Nolde
A New York Supreme Court judge dismissed the claims filed against the Metropolitan Museum of Art over whether its admissions policy was inconsistent with city law and the museum’s charter. Lost in many of the headlines, however, is that the entire lawsuit was not dismissed; another claim for misrepresentation is, for the moment, still alive.
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Topics:
Theodore Grunewald,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
TomášNadrchal,
Filip Saska,
Patricia Nicholson,
Stephen Michelman,
City of New York,
Litigation,
Museums,
Manhattan County Supreme Court,
Shirley Werner Kornreich
In connection with the Detroit bankruptcy, auction house Christie's announced on Monday that it has been hired to "assist and advise on how to realize value for the city while leaving the art in the city's ownership." According to the Christie's press release, the auction house was hired by the City of Detroit itself, which has floated the idea before (and which the museum itself has opposed publicly).
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Topics:
Christie's,
Detroit,
Detroit Institute of Arts,
Collections,
Museums,
Detroit Bankruptcy
An important qualifier to the discussion about deaccessioning and the Detroit Institute of Arts is that although DIA is a subdivision of the bankruptcy debtor (Detroit), that debtor is not any old commercial entity. Rather, Detroit is a municipality, and municipal and state debtors are governed by slightly different rules than private parties.
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Topics:
Legislation,
Donn Zaretsky,
Deaccession,
Chapter 9,
11 U.S.C. § 904,
Public Trust,
Attorney General of Michigan,
Detroit,
Detroit Institute of Arts,
Bankruptcy,
Collections,
Bankruptcy Code,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Bill Schuette,
Detroit Emergency City Manager,
Kevyn Orr,
Museums,
Detroit Bankruptcy,
AAMD
The 1879 Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting entitled “Paysage Bords de Seine” that was discovered at a Virgina flea market, but which may also have been stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art more than sixty years ago, is now the subject of a federal court case in Alexandria, Virginia. The United States has seized the painting and filed an action, known as "interpleader," to sort out the proper ownership of the work.
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Topics:
Sadie A. May,
Fireman’s Fund Insurance,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
interpleader,
Seine,
Amalie Adler Ascher,
Rule 22 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,
Virginia,
Herbert L. May,
Manassas,
Baltimore Museum of Art,
28 U.S.C. § 1335,
Doreen Bulger,
Adams Davidson Galle,
The Potomack Company,
Washington Post,
Museums,
Marcia “Martha” Fuqua,
Paysage Bords de Seine,
Civil Forfeiture,
Ted Cooper
For the second time in less than four months, a complaint has been filed against the Metropolitan Museum of Art over its admissions fee policy. Whereas the November, 2012 action seeks injunctive relief to compel the Met to change its practices, the newest case has been filed as a class action and seeks money damages as well. The Museum has responded forcefully in a statement by Director Thomas P. Campbell challenging the new case.
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Topics:
Theodore Grunewald,
New York City,
General Obligations Law § 349,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Filip Saska,
Patricia Nicholson,
Stephen Michelman,
Tomáš Nadrchal,
Thomas P. Campbell,
Museums
The FBI issued a press release today in which it states that with a “high degree” of confidence, it has identified the thieves responsible for the 1990 theft from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. This development is remarkable for what it says, and what it does not, and deserving of a skeptical view given its timing. The FBI release adds sufficient details to rise above the rumor mill, but it raises as many questions as it answers.
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Topics:
Edgar Degas,
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee,
Gardner Heist,
The Concert,
Govaert Flinck,
Chez Tortoni,
1990,
Edouard Manet,
La Sortie de Pesage,
Anthony Amore,
Rembrandt,
Tom Mashberg,
Vermeer,
Three Mounted Jockeys,
Program for an artistic soiree 1 & 2,
March 18,
Museums,
Richard DesLauriers,
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft,
James “Whitey” Bulger,
Cortege aux Environs de Florence,
A Lady and Gentleman in Black,
Landscape with Obelisk
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a win for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Harvard University concerning possession of a number of Iranian antiquities. The ruling left open, however, some interesting questions about the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). In particular, the First Circuit did not have to rule on whether antiquities in a museum are “property” of a source country that could be used to satisfy an unrelated judgment, or whether a museum displaying an object from a foreign country makes the object “used in commercial activity” such that it is no longer immune from seizure under the FSIA.
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Topics:
cultural property,
Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002,
28 U.S.C. § 1610,
22 U.S.C. § 2259,
Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran,
116 Stat. 2322,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
§ 201 (a),
Harvard University,
Restitution,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Antiquities,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
Museums,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
Pub. L. No. 107-297
A complaint filed against the Metropolitan Museum of Art over its admissions fee policy is gaining widespread coverage. Although the headlines center on the plaintiffs’ allegations of fraud, Theodore Grunewald and Patricia Nicholson (the two plaintiffs) also put forward several other legal theories.
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Topics:
Theodore Grunewald,
General Obligations Law § 349,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Patricia Nicholson,
Central Park,
fraud,
Litigation,
Museums,
Admissions Fee
