After putting on hold its prior recommendation back in March of this year, the United Kingdom Spoliation Advisory Panel has recommended that the Tate Gallery in London should return Beaching a Boat, Brighton by John Constable to heirs of Budapest-based (and Jewish) Baron Ferenc Hatvany. The Art Newspaper reports that the Spoliation Panel concluded that the 1946 export license at issue in the springtime uncertainty (located from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts) was insufficient to overcome the conclusion that title to the looted painting had not passed lawfully.
Read More
Topics:
John Constable,
Soviet,
Budapest,
Worcestershire,
Hungary,
London,
The Art Newspaper,
Beaching a Boat Brighton,
Nazi-looted art,
Red Army,
Mrs P.M. Rainsford,
Broadway Art Gallery,
Budapest Museum of Fine Arts,
Restitution,
World War II,
Baron Ferenc Hatvany,
Tate Gallery,
Museums,
United Kingdom Spoliation Advisory Panel
It has been quite some time since there was occasion to update the dispute between the Chabad Lubavitch movement and Russia over Chabad’s efforts to obtain the return of the library of the movement’s late rabbi Menachem Schneerson and his predecessors (each known in his respective era as the “Rebbe”). There is now a major development. The court has granted the Chabad plaintiffs’ request to turn the daily sanctions that began to accrue in 2013 into an interim judgment, that is, to tally the $50,000 daily fines to date. The U.S. District Court in Washington, DC has done so, and entered a judgment against the Russian Federation, the Russian State Military Archive, the Russian State Library, and the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication, for a total of $43.7 million. Notably, the judgment will increase automatically by $4.5 million every 90 days if not satisfied; the plaintiffs will not have to return to the court and ask for an amended judgment. Plaintiffs have already begun efforts to identify assets from which that judgment could be collected.
Read More
Topics:
Latvia,
Sberbank,
Nazi Germany,
Russian State Military Archive,
Menachem Schneerson,
Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Rebbe,
28 U.S.C. § 1603,
Russian Federation,
FSIA,
Restitution,
Russian State Library,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Poland,
Chabad Lubavitch,
Soviet Union,
Museums
I mostly ignored the initial twitterings about a supposedly secret train laden with gold and other Nazi-looted treasures that was buried somewhere near Wrocław, formerly Breslau, in Poland. My reasons were straightforward: just like supposed sightings of the Gardner Museum heist art, or the Amber Room, the story had all the hallmarks of a fable being peddled by someone who, perhaps not coincidentally, was suggesting that they be paid something for their trouble. Whether this is the next Gurlitt saga or just Al Capone’s vault, it’s too early to tell.
Read More
Topics:
the Holy Roman Empire,
Al Capone’s vault,
Soviet,
Gauleiter Karl Hanke,
Königsberg,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Breslau,
Wrocław,
Prussia,
Max Liebermann,
East Prussia,
Red Army,
Nazi Gold Train,
Amber Room,
Bernsteinzimmer,
the Hanseatic League,
Walbrzych,
Restitution,
Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski,
World War II,
Markus Stötzel,
Poland,
the Duchy of Silesia,
Bohemia,
Riders on the Beach,
David Friedmann,
the Kingdom of Poland,
Gardner Museum heist,
the German Empire
I won’t be in the neighborhood, but the Oskar Reinhart Museum in Winterthur (Switzerland) is putting on a conference for the second year in a row on August 31. 2015 wrestling with the issue of “flight goods” in particular. “Flight goods” refers to property that was not stolen outright, nor sold under duress, but left behind because of a flight in haste from persecution. Awareness has increased in recent years about this as a category of looted property to be addressed. As with other categories, issues of law, morality, and the rights of subsequent good faith owners/possessors make for interesting discussions. Notable presenters include Matthias Frehner, whose Kunstmuseum Bern is grappling with the Gurlitt bequest, and Anja Heuss, whose Staatsgalerie Stuttgart recently restituted a work to the heirs of I. Rosenbaum. All the speakers and topics look excellent.
Read More
Topics:
Berlin,
Dr. Peter Raue,
Walter Feilchenfeldt,
Esther Tisa Francini,
Museum Rietberg,
Olaf Ossmann,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Marc Fehlmann,
Art Dealers Association of Switzerland,
Between Fairness and Justice for Successors and Po,
Oskar Reinhart Museum,
Anja Heuss,
Kulturstiftung der Länder,
Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste,
Claudius Ochsner,
Matthias Frehner,
Alexander Jolles,
Winterthur,
Dr. Stephanie Tasch,
Kunsthandelsverband der Schweiz,
Karin Salm,
Universität Salzburg,
Thomas Buomberger,
Restitution,
Events,
Johannes Nathan,
Looted Art,
World War II,
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart,
Switzerland,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Andrea Baresel-Brand,
flight goods,
Zürich,
Prof. Dr. Georg Graf,
Radio SRF 2,
I. Rosenbaum,
Sibylle Ehringhaus
The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart has agreed to return Bildnis Pfalzgraf Johann III (Portrait of Elector-Palatine Johann III), ca. 1526, by Hans Wertinger to the heirs of the art dealers Saemy Rosenberg and Isaak Rosenbaum, the owners of the art dealer firm I. Rosenbaum in Frankfurt. Rosenbaum and Rosenberg sold the Wertinger in 1936, but the proceeds were paid into a Nazi-blocked account. The work eventually ended up with collector Heinrich Scheufelen in 1948.
Read More
Topics:
Stefan Koldehoff,
Joint Declaration,
Nazi-looted art,
Baden-Württemberg,
Washington Principles on Nazi-Looted Art,
Heinrich Scheufelen,
Die Bilder Sind Unter Uns,
SPK,
Portrait of Elector-Palatine Johann III,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Nazi terror,
Isaak Rosenbaum,
Deutschlandfunk,
Restitution,
coerced sale,
World War II,
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart,
Saemy Rosenberg,
Jürgen Walter,
Museums,
forced sale,
Zacharias Hackenbroch,
Bildnis Pfalzgraf Johann III,
Welfenschatz,
The Pictures Are Under Us,
I. Rosenbaum,
Frankfurt
A Polish man arrested in February after being accused of trying to sell in Moscow a painting looted by the German army from the National Museum of Poznan during World War II will not be extradited to Poland. The U.S. District Court in New York (Rakoff, J.) concluded that Alexander Khochinsky did not acquire "Girl with Dove" by Antoine Pesne—stolen by the German army—with the knowledge that it was stolen property, and thus, could not be extradited. While there could be a second attempt to extradite him for his conduct after he learned the Polish government considered the painting to be stolen (when he had proposed to exchange it for restitution for his mother’s home), it seems unlikely. The whereabouts of the painting are unknown.
Read More
Topics:
Republic of Poland,
Alexander Khochinsky,
Third Reich,
Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage,
extradition,
Book of Acquisitions of the Greater Poland Museum,
Moscow,
Restitution,
"Girl with Dove",
World War II,
Antoine Pesne,
Kaiser Friedrich-Museum,
National Museum of Poznan,
Litigation,
Diplomatic Note No. 35-15-2013,
Rakoff
The United States Senate Appropriations Committee has passed its annual State Department appropriations bill, and it includes a strong instruction on Holocaust-era looted assets. The bill, entitled the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2016 (S. 1725) was accompanied by the Committee’s report, which would direct the State Department to include in an annual report an assessment of U.S. domestic law and foreign countries’ status on their compliance with the Washington Principles and the Terezin Declaration. As the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) observed last year, that progress is mixed, at best. This is a budget bill, meaning it is just the first step in allocating resources for the U.S. government in the year to come (in this case, for the State Department).
Read More
Topics:
Legislation,
looted property,
Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues,
Terezin Declaration,
S. 1725,
Georg Baselitz,
Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscat,
2009 Terezin Declaration,
Holocaust,
World Jewish Restitution Organization,
Department of State Foreign Operations and Related,
Report on International Religious Freedoms,
1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets,
WJRO,
Restitution,
Nazi-looted,
Secretary of State,
World War II,
United States Senate Appropriations Committee,
Gerhard Richter,
Washington Principles,
Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germa
Even as we creep up on the anniversary of the theatrical announcement of an agreement between Bavaria, Germany, and the Kunstmuseum Bern concerning the bequest of Cornelius Gurlitt, the court challenge by Gurlitt’s family is by no means over. News came this week that the Munich court overseeing the appeal of the initial denial of the will challenge has requested an expert opinion concerning Gurlitt’s psychological state.
Read More
Topics:
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Gurlitt Task Force,
Nazi-looted art,
Gurlitt Collection,
Amtsgericht,
Oberlandesgericht,
Munich,
Restitution,
World War II,
beschlagnahmte Kunst,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Raubkunst
A recent report by the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) has made strong criticisms of American museums with respect to their handling of Nazi-looted art claims. In particular, the report criticizes the assertion of timeliness defenses such as statutes of limitations. The report focuses in particular on cases involving the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum at the University of Oklahoma. There is no state control over the vast proportion of art in America the way there is in most European countries, and thus, no possibility of singular, nationalized approaches. In response to the report, some of the museums mentioned have defended their strategies, though in some cases the players are talking past each other. What is undeniable is that whether as a function of the nature of U.S. museums (largely private, rather than public), it is hard to say there is a coordinated approach to the issue, good or bad. The report is lengthy and detailed, and well worth a read in depth that space here does not permit. In some ways, the question it poses boils down to this: is determining the historical truth the obligation of everyone involved or is there some room to prevail without addressing the larger issues?
Read More
Topics:
Toledo Museum of Art,
Street Scene in Tahiti,
Léone Meyer’s,
American Association of Museums,
Two Nudes,
La bérgère,
AAMD Task Force on the Spoliation of Art during th,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection,
Rue St. Honoré après-midi êffet de pluie,
University of Oklahoma,
Cassirer,
Nazi-looted art,
Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum,
Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art,
World Jewish Restitution Organization,
WJRO,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
American Alliance of Museums AAM,
World War II,
Paul Gaugin,
Camille Pissarro,
Oskar Kokoschka,
Museums,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
AAMD,
Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena
