We were privileged to file today a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of our client, art dealer Alexander Khochinsky. The petition asks the Court for reinstatement of a lawsuit against Poland for lack of subject matter jurisdiction (i.e., sovereign immunity) for Poland’s effort to have Khochinsky extradited from New York as leverage to force him to relinquish a painting that he inherited from his father. The case invokes three provisions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1605 (the FSIA): the implicit waiver exception, the counterclaim exception, and the non-commercial tort exception. The basis on which we seek the Court’s review is simple: if the holding below is the law, then no one is safe in the United States from any number of rogue regimes that abuse the extradition system for discriminatory and persecutory reasons. To allow this decision to stand is a threat to any American. What if, for example, Turkey pursued a Christian American in similar fashion motivated by religious animus about owning a particular kind of art from the Ottoman Empire? What if the Taliban, now the de facto government of Afghanistan, declared a worldwide intention to find Jews in possession of Pashto cultural property? What if China declared American intellectual property to be revolutionary patrimony?
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Topics:
China,
Alexander Khochinsky,
Holocaust claims,
extradition,
FSIA,
"Girl with Dove",
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Poland,
Sullivan and Worcester LLP,
28 U.S.C. § 1605,
Operation Barbarossa,
Taliban,
Afghanistan,
Turkey,
Pashto
I will be speaking next Tuesday March 16, 2021 at a virtual event co-sponsored by the University of Denver's Center for Art Collecting Ethics and hosted and the Holocaust Museum Houston entitled “Legal and Ethical Challenges in Art Collection Stewardship.” Readers of the Art Law Report or of A Tragic Fate--Law and Ethics in the Battle over Nazi Looted Art (2017) will of course know that this is a topic of great personal and professional interest, and I'm pleased to join an august panel led by the University of Denver's Elizabeth Campbell, a scholar and author of Defending National Treasures: French Art and Heritage Under Vichy (2011), a wonderful study of its subject. I first met Dr. Campbell in 2017 at the conference in Cambridge “From Refugees to Restitution: The History of Nazi Looted Art in the UK in Transnational Perspective” at which we both spoke. She started the Center for Art Collecting Ethics, which has hosted and organized in-depth study.
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Topics:
Sullivan and Worcester LLP,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Elizabeth Campbell,
University of Denver,
Renée Albiston,
Kirkland Museum,
Denver Art Museum,
Gus Kopriva,
Redbud Gallery
As potential regulation of the art market gathers in the United States, the increasing relevance of the Responsible Art Market Initiative is ever clearer. And while we will miss gathering in Geneva for the first time in several years, RAM is undeterred. Join us on Friday January 29, 2021 for a virtual edition of the annual RAM event, this year entitled “Innovation and change in a Responsible Art Market.” The program follows below (including a virtual networking opportunity), and registration by 27 January 2021 can be accomplished using the following link: www.responsibleartmarket.org/event-registration.
See you then. Until next year, this will have to suffice for ein Stückchen der Schweiz from last February:
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Topics:
Anne Laure Bandle,
Reibpartie,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
Art Law Foundation,
New York University,
TEFAF,
Geneva,
Sandrine Giroud,
Lalive,
Albert Martin Wolffson,
Eugene Driker,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Henry Zacharias,
Copyright,
EPA Victory,
Sullivan and Worcester LLP,
Bonhams,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Elmyr de Hory,
Mathilde Heaton,
RAM,
Responsible Art Market initiative,
Phillips,
Stephenson Harwood,
Jonathan Petropoulos,
Nanne Dekking,
Artory,
National Defense Authorization Act,
Nicolas Galley,
Borel & Barbey,
Valentina Volshkova,
Masterworks,
Tom Christopherson,
Melanie Damani,
Pace Gallery,
University of Zurich,
Masha Golovina,
Hottinger Group,
Freya Simms,
LAPADA,
The Association of Art and Antiques Dealers,
Audry Li,
Zhong Lun Law Firm,
Shanghai
I'm pleased to be participating next month in the Professional Artist Series at Danforth Art in Framingham, Massachusetts. The Danforth is a wonderful museum and school that engages both the creation and exhibition of art across a broad community. It is a real treasure.
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Topics:
Massachusetts,
Danforth Museum School,
Jessica Burko,
The Boston Globe,
Cate McQuaid,
Professional Artist Series,
Events,
Copyright,
Nicholas O'Donnell,
Museums,
Sullivan and Worcester LLP,
Fair Use,
Art Law Report,
Framingham
