The release last week of The Woman in Gold, the feature film adaptation of The Lady in Gold by Anne Marie O’Connor, starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds as Maria Altmann and her attorney E. Randol Schoenberg, respectively, as well as Tatiana Maslany as the younger Altmann and Daniel Brühl as Austrian journalist Hubertus Czernin, is an important opportunity to reflect on the legal importance of the case. Even today, the case provides lessons about the way some victims are still treated, and how one individual can make sure the past is never forgotten. The looting of Jewish art collections was a concerted effort whose prominence should never be forgotten. And perhaps even more, it robs those who did survive of the dignity of remembering their family experiences. Consider: the next time you gather with your extended family, look around the room. Pick something that you’re accustomed to seeing when the family meets. Now, imagine it had been stolen or surrendered under duress, and was hanging on the wall of a national collection that denied it had been taken. How would you feel? This is the dilemma faced by many claimants, and it is precisely why Altmann matters so much.
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Topics:
Maria Altmann,
The Lady in Gold,
Adele Bloch-Bauer,
The Woman in Gold,
Daniel Brühl,
Germany,
Nazi-looted art,
Academy of Fine Arts,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Hitler,
Tatiana Maslany,
Anne Marie O’Connor,
Supreme Court,
A Few Good Men,
Belvedere,
E. Randol Schoenberg,
World Jewish Congress,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Ryan Reynolds,
FSIA,
expropriation exception”,
Restitution,
Neue Galerie,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Switzerland,
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer,
Helen Mirren,
Museums,
Fritz Altmann,
Gustav Klimt,
Vienna,
Welfenschatz,
Hubertus Czernin,
Ronald Lauder,
Austrian National Gallery
A U.S. District Court judge has taken the recent invitation of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and transferred to Oklahoma a lawsuit by Léone Meyer over ownership of a Camille Pissarro painting at the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum at the University of Oklahoma. The case will now proceed in Oklahoma, where the museum seems likely to assert both sovereign immunity under Oklahoma law, as well as an argument that transfers in Switzerland conferred legal title to the museum as a successor to those transfers. However counterintuitive it seems, it may yet be that a court could agree with Meyer that the painting was stolen, but agree with Oklahoma that a Swiss litigation in the 1950s about whether it was sold to a good faith buyer means that Oklahoma holds full title and ownership.
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Topics:
David Findlay Jr. Inc.,
due process,
third party beneficiary,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Raoul Meyer,
Nazi Occupation,
American Alliance of Museums,
University of Oklahoma,
Aaron and Clara Weitzenhofer,
Judge Colleen McMahon,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,
AAM,
Vichy,
La bergère rentrent des moutons,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
David Findlay Galleries,
World War II,
CPLR 301,
Switzerland,
Leone Meyer,
long art statute,
Camille Pissarro,
Museums,
personal jurisdiction,
AAMD,
Christoph Bernoulli,
Swiss judgment,
Rep. Mike Reynolds
Shortly after reports that two of the objects found in Cornelius Gurlitt’s possession in 2012 would “be restituted “soon” to the families from which they were looted under Nazi auspices pursuant to the three recommendations of the Gurlitt Task Force to date, the Task Force has now issued a fourth recommendation. The newest work to be identified for restitution is a Camille Pissarro painting, The Seine seen from the Pont-Neuf, the Louvre in the background.
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Topics:
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Uta Werner,
Gurlitt Task Force,
Gurlitt Collection,
Salzburg,
Restitution,
District Court of Munich,
World War II,
Camille Pissarro,
The Seine seen from the Pont-Neuf the Louvre in th,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
www.lostart.de,
Museums,
Monika Grütters,
Deutsches Zentrum für Kulturgutverluste,
German Cultural Property Center,
Minister of Culture
The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles has denied yet another motion by the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena to dismiss claims by Marei von Saher to ownership of the Lucas Cranach paintings Adam and Eve. Ruling on the most recent argument that the claim was brought too late, the court held that the case was within California’s often-revised statute of limitations. Remarkably, even though last year’s remand from the Ninth Circuit raised the question of the application of the Act of State Doctrine, that issue went mentioned but unresolved. That could mean yet another motion before the case can proceed to trial (or even discovery).
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Topics:
Netherlands,
Norton Simon Museum,
Nazi Germany,
Von Saher,
Nazi-looted art,
California Code of Civil Procedure Section 338,
Pasadena,
Adam,
conflict preemption,
Lucas Cranach,
Cranach,
Restitution,
field preemption,
Marei Von Saher,
Statute of Limitations,
Goudstikker,
Los Angeles,
World War II,
Von Saher v. Norton Simon Museum,
Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain,
Museums,
Eve,
California Code of Civil Procedure 354.3
As if there weren't enough controversy with national advisory commissions' recommendations about Nazi-looted art, the Tate Gallery in London is apparently reconsidering a recommendation last year by the United Kingdom’s Spoliation Advisory Panel that Beaching a Boat, Brighton (1824) by John Constable should be restituted to heirs of Budapest-based Baron Ferenc Hatvany, who was Jewish.
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Topics:
John Constable,
Soviet,
Budapest,
Worcestershire,
London,
The Art Newspaper,
Beaching a Boat Brighton,
Nazi-looted art,
Red Army,
Mrs P.M. Rainsford,
Broadway Art Gallery,
Restitution,
World War II,
Baron Ferenc Hatvany,
Tate Gallery,
Washington Principles,
United Kingdom Spoliation Advisory Panel
A Munich court ruled last week that the will written by Cornelius Gurlitt in the last days of his life that named the Kunstmuseum Bern (an institution with which he had no relationship whatsoever) was valid, rejecting a challenge by Gurlitt’s cousin Uta Werner. It is emblematic of the strange case of Gurlitt and of German’s bizarre handling of the affair, that this decision resolves very few of the pending issues.
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Topics:
Conny Leaks,
Focus,
Carl Spitzweg,
Hildebrand Gurlitt,
Potemkin Village,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Breslau,
Henri Hinrichsen,
German Minister of Culture,
Uta Werner,
Gurlitt Task Force,
Max Liebermann,
Germany,
Nazi-looted art,
Gurlitt Collection,
Seated Woman,
Two Riders on the Beach,
Entartete Kunst,
Salzburg,
Gurlitt,
NS Raubkunst,
Seuddeutsche Zeitung,
Restitution,
Catrin Lorch,
Bavaria,
David Toren,
World War II,
degenerate art,
beschlagnahmte Kunst,
Austria,
Kunstmuseum Bern,
Monika Grütters,
Martha Hinrichsen,
David Friedmann,
Henri Matisse,
Jörg Häntzschel,
Paul Rosenberg
An interesting development happened last week in the case seeking restitution of a Camille Pissarro painting held by the University of Oklahoma. The plaintiff Leone Meyer appealed the May 14, 2014 judgment that found that the courts of New York lacked jurisdiction over the Oklahoma-based defendants affiliated with the University of Oklahoma (the painting is in the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art). Without ruling on the jurisdictional basis for dismissal, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the matter back to the trial court for consideration of whether the case should be transferred to Oklahoma. It seems likely that it will be, or even if not, that she will file a new case there and the matter will continue. It’s splitting hairs, but many of the headlines suggesting that the Court of Appeals had revived Meyer’s claims are not quite right; Meyer’s claims have still never been addressed on the merits (so they were never dead) and, as discussed below, another forum remains available to her. The larger point is that a second round is likely coming in Oklahoma.
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Topics:
David Findlay Jr. Inc.,
Raoul Meyer,
Nazi Occupation,
University of Oklahoma,
Aaron and Clara Weitzenhofer,
Judge Colleen McMahon,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,
Vichy,
La bergère rentrent des moutons,
Restitution,
David Findlay Galleries,
World War II,
Switzerland,
Leone Meyer,
Camille Pissarro,
Museums,
personal jurisdiction,
Christoph Bernoulli,
Swiss judgment
As expected, the Austria’s Advisory Committee (Der Beirat gemäß § 3 des Bundesgesetzes über die Rückgabe von Kunstgegenständen aus den Österreichischen Bundesmuseen und Sammlungen, BGBl. I Nr. 181/1998 i.d.F. BGBl. I Nr. 117/2009, (Kunstrückgabegesetz)) issued a decision on Friday with respect to the Lederer family’s claim to the famous Beethoven Frieze. In a lengthy opinion, the Committee recommended against restitution, prompting widespread speculation about what the claimants would do next. The mural is installed at Vienna's iconic Secession Museum (my photograph of the museum exterior, taken today, is below), and is one of the icons of fin-de-siècle Vienna.
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Topics:
Kunstrückgabebeirat,
Galerie St. Etienne,
Strasbourg,
European Court of Human Rights,
Marc Weber,
Beethoven Frieze,
Beethovenfries,
Restitution,
Jane Kallir,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Der Beirat gemäß § 3 des Bundesgesetzes über die R,
Lanter Rechtsanwälte,
Secession Museum,
Gustav Klimt,
(Kunstrückgabegesetz),
Vienna
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Topics:
Maria Altmann,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
National Socialists,
Third Reich,
artdaily.org,
Reuters,
United States Supreme Court,
Gestapo,
Haaretz,
Deutschlandradio. Deutsche Presse Agentur,
Robin Young,
the Guardian,
The Art Newspaper,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
The Wall Street Journal,
Deutsche Welle,
Santa Fe,
KRQE News 13,
the Observer,
Markus Stoetzel,
Die Erle,
Mel Urbach,
Nazis,
Advisory Commission,
3SAT,
ZDF,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Washington DC,
Hermann Goering,
Private Wealth,
Restitution,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Here & Now,
Gerald Stiebel,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
flight tax,
Süddeutsche Zeitung,
Adolf Hitler,
United States District Court,
The New York Times,
Federal Republic of Germany,
BBC News Europe,
Alan Phillip,
Welfenschatz,
NPR,
PrivateArtInvestor,
ArtNet news
Der Standard in Austria reported this week that a recommendation is expected on Friday in the claim by the heirs of Erich Lederer to the famous Klimt Beethoven Frieze in the Secession Museum in Vienna. The issue in this case is not a Nazi-era theft per se, but the effect of Austria’s post-war restitution law, which returned ownership to the Lederer family (it was looted from Erich Lederer under the Nazi) but forbade export, leading to a sale. The Lederer family has argued that that amounts to a second taking. As I made no secret last week with regard to Germany’s intended National Cultural Property Designation for the Welfenschatz that my clients have sued to recover, this kind of export prohibition is now recognized for what it is: an effort to hinder restitution. The same kind of claim was made against the Leopold Museum in Vienna for Portrait of Wally, namely, the allegation that the post-war sale was not valid under the circumstances because of the export prohibition. That case settled in 2010, the painting remains in Vienna.
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Topics:
BGBl. I Nr. 181/1998 i.d.F. BGBl. I Nr. 117/2009,
Erich Lederer,
London,
sales under duress,
Nazi-looted art,
Beethoven Frieze,
Jugendstil,
Restitution,
Austrian Cultural Ministry,
World War II,
Leopold Collection,
Switzerland,
Secession Building,
Der Beirat gemäß § 3 des Bundesgesetzes über die R,
Portrait of Wally,
Austria,
14th Secession Exhibition,
Wiener Secessionsgebäude,
Zürich,
Gustav Klimt,
(Kunstrückgabegesetz),
Vienna,
Anschluss,
Dr. Rudolf Leopold,
Leopold Museum,
Limbach Commission,
New York,
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
