A very exciting day at Sullivan: Nick O'Donnell is set to argue before the Supreme Court of the United States at 11:00am. The case of Federal Republic of Germany v. Philip centers on a case of Nazi-looted art dating back to 1935.

On October 22, the heirs to the Jewish art dealers who were forced to sell the medieval devotional art collection known as the Welfenschatz (in English, the Guelph Treasure) to agents of Hermann Goering in 1935 filed their brief in the Supreme Court of the United States. It can be viewed at this link.

The Supreme Court is set to hear argument on December 7, 2020, on whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and its "takings clause" create jurisdiction over the heirs' claims for restitution of the Welfenschatz—as all reviewing courts so far have held. The Welfenschatz is held by the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (in English, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation).

The latest development in the long-running dispute over Germany's famed Guelph Treasure, and whether its 1935 sale by Jewish art dealers to the Prussian government was made under duress, could see the case before the US Supreme Court. Germany is challenging the case on jurisdictional grounds, claiming that it should not be decided in a US court.