Topics: Focus, Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Drefsden, Gurlitt Task Force, Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt Collection, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Lex Gurlitt, Entartete Kunst, Salzburg, Bundesrat, Restitution, Der Spiegel, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Switzerland, degenerate art, Kunstmuseum Bern, verschollene Kunst, Münchner Kunstfund, Ronald Lauder

Restitution policy at the federal and state level in Germany in recent months seems to have taken a certain direction that has been cause for criticism. Whether it is the recent decisions by the Limbach Commission that ignore longstanding law about sales under duress, the odd decision by the Federal Republic of Germany to resist a lawsuit over the Max Liebermann painting found in Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment that the Gurlitt Task Force has already recommended be restituted, or the resistance to the claims by the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy heirs to Picasso’s Madame Soler, the trend has been towards obstruction and resistance rather than transparency and reconciliation. Notwithstanding the recent announcement of the Center for Cultural Property losses (the Deutsches Zentrum für Kulturgutverluste about which the jury is still out), this is cause for concern.

Topics: Katharina Siefert, Schwabinger Kunstfund, Cornelius Gurlitt, Karlsruhe Kunsthalle, Freien Kunst- und Ritterschießen, Badische Landesmuseum, Max Liebermann, Bamberg, Gurlitt Collection, Woman in a Theatre Balcony, Lothar Franz von Schönborn, Madame Soler, Schönborn’sche Löwenpokal, Heinrich and Emma Budge, Reich Ministry for Art- and Museum Objects, Schönborn Lion Cup, Restitution, Upper Franconia, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Free and Knightly Art of Shooting, World War II, Elector-Bishop, Kurfürst, Reichserziehungsministerium für Kunst- und Museums, Kurt Martin, www.lostart.de, Center for Cultural Property, Museums, Fürst-Bischof, Picasso, Federal Republic of Germany, Deutsches Zentrum für Kulturgutverluste, Limbach Commission, Oberfranken, Prince-Elector of Mainz

Topics: The Changing Laws for the Sale of Endangered Speci, Monica Kreshik, NYU SCPS, International Director of Restitution, The Frick Collection, miGavel Auctions/Lark Mason Associates, Resale Royalties, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Betty Krulik Fine Art Limited, American Royalties Too Act, Michael McCullough, Pearlstein & McCullough LLP, authentication, IRS/Tax Free Exchange, Richard Levin, New York University, American Alliance of Museums, Suzanne Goldstein Baker, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Art Law Day, Department of Environmental Conservation, Ulf Biscof, New Legislation for Authentication Experts, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, Jerrold Nadler, Christie's, Appraisal, Detroit Institute of Arts, Amy Goldrich, Betty Krulik, Restitution, Randi Schuster, Events, Christopher Marinello Art Recovery International L, Cahill Partners LLP, Elizabeth von Habsburg Winston Art Group, Monica Dugot, Copyright, Appraisers Association of America, Marianne Rosenberg, Terry Shtob, Antiquities, Ford W. Bell, Craig Hoover, Bankruptcy and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Lark Mason, Kimmel Center, Wildlife Trade and Conservation Branch, Detroit Bankruptcy, Diane Wierbicki, Investment Property Exchange Services, Samuel Sachs II, Biscof & Paetow Rechtsanwälte, Withers Bergman LLP, Judith Bresler, Paul Rosenberg

Topics: Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Breslau, Max Liebermann, Germany, Silesia, Gurlitt Collection, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, bailment, Entartete Kunst, FSIA, Restitution, Bavaria, David Toren, Zwei Ritter am Strand, Free State of Bavaria, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(2), Looted Art, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Altmann v. Republic of Austria, Freistaat Bayern, Kunstmuseum Bern, Riders on the Beach, Federal Republic of Germany, Raubkunst, David Friedmann, Münchner Kunstfund

Topics: Reuters, Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt Collection, Tages Anzeiger, Munich, Christoph Schäublin, Restitution, Bavaria, Ruth Gilgen Hamisultane, World War II, Swiss, Austria, Sonntagszeitung, Kunstmuseum Bern, Berner Zeitung, Zürich, Nazi Raubkunst, Münchner Kunstfund

To date, only one lawsuit has been filed in the United States related to the seizure from Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment of some 1,280 works of art, a story that broke a year ago with the concern about the objects’ Nazi-looting connections via his father Hildebrand Gurlitt (the view here last winter was that the longer Germany failed to address the situation comprehensively, the more likely such U.S. litigation became). That lawsuit, brought by David Toren, seeks the return of Two Riders on the Beach (Zwei Ritter am Strand), by Max Liebermann. Germany and Bavaria moved to dismiss the case yesterday, which is particularly puzzling given that among the very few determinations made by the Gurlitt Task Force (in August), it is that the Liebermann should be returned. The cynical view is that they are looking to forestall future claims, but it is past time for the painting to be returned.

Topics: Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Breslau, Max Liebermann, Germany, Silesia, Gurlitt Collection, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, bailment, Entartete Kunst, FSIA, Restitution, Bavaria, David Toren, Zwei Ritter am Meer, Free State of Bavaria, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(2), Looted Art, World War II, Altmann v. Republic of Austria, Freistaat Bayern, Kunstmuseum Bern, Riders on the Beach, Federal Republic of Germany, Raubkunst, David Friedmann, Münchner Kunstfund

Topics: Schwabinger Kunstfund, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius Gurlitt, Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, Germany, Minister of Culture Monika Grütters, Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt Collection, Lex Gurlitt, Koordinierungsstelle für Lost Art in Magdeburg, Magdeburg, enteignete Kunst, Gurlitt, NS Raubkunst, Restitution, Task Force, Bundesländer, Lost Art, www.lostart.de, Limbach Commission, Center for Cultural Property Losses

Topics: Legislation, The Changing Laws for the Sale of Endangered Speci, Monica Kreshik, NYU SCPS, International Director of Restitution, The Frick Collection, miGavel Auctions/Lark Mason Associates, Resale Royalties, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Betty Krulik Fine Art Limited, American Royalties Too Act, Michael McCullough, Pearlstein & McCullough LLP, authentication, IRS/Tax Free Exchange, Richard Levin, New York University, American Alliance of Museums, Suzanne Goldstein Baker, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Art Law Day, Department of Environmental Conservation, Ulf Biscof, New Legislation for Authentication Experts, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, Christie's, Appraisal, Detroit Institute of Arts, Amy Goldrich, Betty Krulik, Restitution, Randi Schuster, Events, Christopher Marinello Art Recovery International L, Cahill Partners LLP, Elizabeth von Habsburg Winston Art Group, Monica Dugot, Appraisers Association of America, Marianne Rosenberg, Terry Shtob, Ford W. Bell, Craig Hoover, Bankruptcy and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Lark Mason, Kimmel Center, Wildlife Trade and Conservation Branch, Detroit Bankruptcy, Diane Wierbicki, Investment Property Exchange Services, Samuel Sachs II, Biscof & Paetow Rechtsanwälte, Withers Bergman LLP, Judith Bresler, Paul Rosenberg

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.

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

Topics: Banco de la Nación, Library, Judge Thomas P. Griesa, Bank of New York Mellon, Argentina, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Rebbe, Southern District of New York, Russian Federation, FSIA, Lubavitch, Restitution, A bond, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, default, Chabad, Paul E. Singer, Art Law Report