I am proud to announce the publication in the Chapman Law Review of my article: “Turnabout is Foul Play: Sovereign Immunity and Cultural Property Claims,” which you can link to here. The abstract of the article is below.
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Topics: Second Hickenlooper Amendment, Act of State, Nazi-looted art, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, FSIA, expropriation exception”, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(3), Genocide Convention, Nazi-confiscated art, F.R.G. v. Philipp, domestic takings, Chapman Law Review, Turnabout is Foul Play, Sovereign Immunity and Cultural Property Claims, Roberts Court, Taline Ratanjee, Greg Mikhanjian, Anna Ross, Amber Odell, Sara Morandi
Seven bipartisan sponsors introduced the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025 on May 22, 2025, as Senate Bill 1884. The bill would extend provisions of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act (HEAR Act) of 2016 with respect to the statute of limitations on Nazi-era art recovery claims in U.S. courts, and would rebuke the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling in 2021 that Nazi art loss victims from Germany were not the subject of takings in violation of international law. The bill is an important step in Holocaust-era art claims and should be passed.
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Topics: laches, Act of State, Statute of Limitations, Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, Richard Blumenthal, HEAR Act, Genocide Convention, Nazi-confiscated art, F.R.G. v. Philipp, Marsha Blackburn, Eric Schmidt, Katie Boyd Britt, domestic takings, Cory Booker, Thomas Tillis, Chapman Law Review, forum non conveniens, John Fetterman
I was proud to advise the Allentown Art Museum, which announced today that it has reached an agreement with the heirs of Henry and Hertha Bromberg concerning Portrait of George, Duke of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop. Pursuant to the agreement, the painting will be auctioned at Christie’s in New York next year following educational programming focusing on the painting’s history. The Museum’s press release can be read here. The story was also addressed in an excellent article in The New York Times by Graham Bowley.
(Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony, by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop)
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Topics: Graham Bowley, Paris, Washington Conference Principles, Christie's, Hamburg, Lucas Cranach the Elder, The New York Times, Nazi-confiscated art, Henry Bromberg, Hertha Bromberg, Martin Bromberg, Max Weintraub, Reichsfluchtsteuer, Allen Loebl, F. Kleinberger Gallery, property inventory, Allentown Art Museum, Portrait of George the Bearded Duke of Saxony, Porträt des Georg dem Bärtigen Herzog von Sachsen, Vermögensverzeichnis, Wildenstein
I was pleased for the opportunity to chat with Larry Perel of KCRW in Santa Barbara about the significance of the recent ruling that the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid is the owner of Rue St. Honoré, effet de pluie by Camille Pissarro—notwithstanding that there was no dispute that it had been looted from the Cassirer by the Nazis. You can listen to the full audio of the radio broadcast here. I discussed the Cassirer case, the more recent decision by the United States Supreme Court not to hear further appeal of Marei von Saher’s lawsuit against the Norton Simon Museum, and other current issues concerning the restitution of Nazi-confiscated art claims. You can read more background on these cases here at the Art Law Report, or in A Tragic Fate—Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art.
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Topics: Nazi-looted art, Marei Von Saher, Camille Pissarro, Art Law Report, A Tragic Fate, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Rue St. Honoré effet de pluie, Nazi-confiscated art, Larry Perel, KCRW, Santa Barbara, Madrid
