The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today dismissed the petition to rehear en banc last year’s landmark ruling that the heirs of the art dealers who sold the Guelph Treasure (or Welfenschatz) may pursue their claims in U.S. federal court. Defendants the Federal Republic of Germany and the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (the SPK, or Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in English) had argued that claims under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s expropriation exception such as these are not violations of international law and also require a claimant to exhaust remedies abroad, a position rejected by prior decisions of the D.C. Circuit and by today’s ruling as well.
Today’s decision confirms the first-of-its kind holding last year that a German state museum must face claims based on allegations of Nazi-looted art, a direct result of Germany’s failures through its so-called Advisory (often called Limbach) Commission to address seriously and comprehensively the state of Nazi-looted art in its national collections. In the five years since denying the Guelph Treasure claimants any meaningful attention, Germany has fumbled through the Gurlitt fiasco and attempted other various distractions like its new fitful attention to colonial art (with no real progress there either). Germany has repeatedly disparaged my clients by suggesting that the matter was already "decided on the merits" before Germany's Advisory Commission. This is false. The Advisory Commission renders non-binding recommendations to state museums and has been roundly criticized for its opinions in 2014 and 2015 in particular, when my clients were denied justice. There is no small irony in having to explain this in the context of Germany's request for a do-over after last year's ruling.
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Topics:
Third Reich,
Feist,
Prussia,
Germany,
Nazi-looted art,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
SPK,
Advisory Commission,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Hermann Goering,
expropriation exception”,
Nazi persecution,
Boy Leading a Horse,
NS Raubkunst,
J.S. Goldschmidt,
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation,
forced sale,
Zacharias Hackenbroch,
Welfenschatz,
I. Rosenbaum,
Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act,
HEAR Act,
Paul Körner,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Under Landmark Ruling, Germany Must Now Defend Nazi-Looted Art Claims in U.S. Court
WASHINGTON (March 31, 2017)- The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that claims over the famed Guelph Treasure can proceed against Germany in a United States court. This is the first time Germany will have to defend itself in the U.S. against allegations of looted Nazi art and artifacts. The claims arise out of the 1935 forced sale by a consortium of Jewish art dealers to Hermann Goering’s minions of the famed collection of medieval artifacts known as the Guelph Treasure. The claims were filed by clients of Sullivan & Worcester LLP against the Federal Republic of Germany and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, or SPK). The court rejected the Defendants’ arguments that they are immune from suit and held that the Plaintiffs’ claims can be considered a taking of property in violation of international law for the purpose of evaluating the court’s jurisdiction over Germany and the SPK.. Jed Leiber, Alan Philipp, and Gerald Stiebel may now proceed to litigate their claims for their property’s rightful return. Leiber, Philipp, and Stiebel are also represented by S&W’s co-counsel in this matter, Markus Stötzel and Mel Urbach, experienced counselors in the return of Nazi-looted art who have been fighting this case for over eight years and who decried Germany continuing to defend the Nazis’ and Herman Goering’s theft from Jews.
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Topics:
Nazi-looted art,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Mel Urbach,
SPK,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Hermann Goering,
FSIA,
expropriation exception”,
NS Raubkunst,
J.S. Goldschmidt,
Markus Stötzel,
Saemy Rosenberg,
Adolf Hitler,
Federal Republic of Germany,
Zacharias Hackenbroch,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Welfenschatz,
I. Rosenbaum,
Paul Körner,
Wannsee Conference
Germany Runs Counter to 20 Years of International Commitments
As readers know, my clients Alan Philipp and Gerald Stiebel sued the Federal Republic of Germany and the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) in February for restitution of the Guelph Treasure (or Welfenschatz as it is known in Germany), assisted by my co-counsel Mel Urbach, Esq. and Markus Stötzel of Marburg, Germany. As my co-counsel speak to an event tonight hosted by Congresswoman Grace Meng on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, an event inextricable to the persecution of Jews in Europe, Germany’s response to the Complaint advances a stunning revisionism about the Holocaust and the international commitments that Germany has made. While paying lip service to the seriousness of Jewish suffering, the papers filed in court are nothing less than an attempt to move the goalposts to exempt a historical period from responsibility about which there can be no serious debate. Independent condemnation was not far behind the filing.
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Topics:
Grace Meng,
Simon Wiesenthal Center,
Shoah,
Adolph von Menzel,
Hans Sachs,
Washington Principles on Nazi-Looted Art,
1943 London Inter-Allied Declaration,
Dachau,
Holocaust,
Mel Urbach,
SPK,
George Eduard Behrens,
Nuremberg race laws,
Holocaust revisionism,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Marburg,
Restitution,
Los Angeles,
Gerald Stiebel,
World War II,
Markus Stötzel,
Saemy Rosenberg,
Deutsches Historisches Museum,
Reichskristallnacht,
Isaac Rosenbaum,
Lucie Ruth Hackenbroch,
Federal Republic of Germany,
Zacharias Hackenbroch,
Pariser Wochentag,
Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
Paris Weekday,
Alan Philipp,
Welfenschatz,
Military Government Law 59,
Frankfurt
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.
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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
