My article “Chabad Library Case and Russian Art Loan Embargo Roil International Waters” was published in the June 4, 2013 edition of Bloomberg BNA – The United State Law Week. My article reviews the history of the Chabad Lubavitch library dispute and its impact on international relations and the art world. The article is linked… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Restitution
Subscribe to Restitution RSS FeedSpeakers List for ARCA Art & Heritage Conference Released
Posted in Cultural Property, Events, Restitution, World War IIARCA (Association for Research into Crimes Against Art) has released the Speakers list for next month’s Art & Heritage Conference June 21-23 in Amelia, Italy. I will be presenting on the history of World War II restitution litigation in the United States, its effectiveness, and its prospects for the future. The full list is below. Hope to… Continue Reading
Presentation to the 5th Annual ARCA Art Crime Conference June 21-23, 2013
Posted in Cultural Property, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Restitution, World War III will be speaking at the 5th annual Art Crime Conference held by ARCA (Association for Research into Crimes Against Art) in Amelia, Italy between June 21-23, 2013. My talk will address Holocaust restitution litigation in the United States, similar to the paper I gave in Maastricht in March but covering important more recent developments as… Continue Reading
DC Circuit Reinstates All Claims that Were Dismissed in Herzog Case Against Hungary-UPDATED
Posted in Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Restitution, World War IIThe DC Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated the entire set of claims brought by the Herzog heirs against the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Applied Arts, and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The appellate decision focuses on the claim that an agreement was reached after WWII… Continue Reading
Art and Heritage Disputes at the University of Maastricht
Posted in Cultural Property, Restitution, UncategorizedOn March 24-25, 2013, I will be attending the Art and Heritage Disputes at the University of Maastricht. The seminar website is here: On March 25, I will speak on the topic “American Wartime Art Restitution in the 1990s and Beyond-Has it All Been Worth It?” The program highlights many other experts I look forward… Continue Reading
MFA and Harvard To Keep Iranian Antiquities, FSIA/Seizure Questions for Museums Left Unanswered
Posted in Antiquities, Cultural Property, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Museums, RestitutionThe First Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a win for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Harvard University concerning possession of a number of Iranian antiquities. The ruling left open, however, some interesting questions about the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). In particular, the First Circuit did not have to rule on whether antiquities… Continue Reading
President Putin Vows to Keep Chabad Library in Russia
Posted in Foreign Sovereign Immunities, RestitutionBacking off some of the more belligerent comments made recently by the Foreign Ministry, Russian President Vladimir Putin has nonetheless signalled that Russia has no plans to return the Chabad library to comply with a 2010 judgment or the more recent sanctions order. Both Reuters and the Art Newspaper reported that Putin proposed to store… Continue Reading
Russia Swiftly Lashes Out At Sanctions Concerning Schneerson/Chabad Library, U.S. Government Still Silent
Posted in Cultural Property, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Restitution, World War IIDespite refusing to participate in a lawsuit for nearly three years since a judgment that ordered the return to the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Brooklyn of the late Rebbe Menachem Schneerson’s library, the Russian Federation swiftly spoke up when news came of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s order yesterday sanctioning and… Continue Reading
Russia Sanctioned $50,000 per day for Defiance of Chabad Library Judgment that Led to Art and Cultural Loan Embargo
Posted in Cultural Property, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Restitution, World War IIIn a case that has tested the principles of how a defiant sovereign defendant can be compelled to comply with a court order, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has taken an emphatic step in an order issued today. The Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications, the Russian… Continue Reading
Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, Unexpectedly Dies in Committee
Posted in Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212Senate Bill 2212, previously passed by the House of Representatives, seemed to be gathering steam as 2012 came to a close. In November and December bipartisan sponsors were signing on, with no publicly-known opposition as it waited for a Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing. Yet the New Year has come and gone—and with it… Continue Reading
The Art Law Report to Present Paper in Maastricht, the Netherlands
Posted in Events, Restitution, World War III will be in Maastricht, the Netherlands, on March 24-25, 2013 at the Art and Heritage Law Conference to present my forthcoming paper to be published in the Special Issue of Transnational Dispute Management, “Art and Heritage Disputes.” The paper (and my presentation) will re-assess the effectiveness of American litigation in the last 15 years… Continue Reading
Bi-Partisan Sponsors for Senate Bill 2212 Sign On
Posted in Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Legislation, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212Bi-partisan momentum appears to be gathering for Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (a bill that would clarify an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act in respect to the loan of cultural artifacts). After Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) signed on as a co-sponsor on November 27, 2012, others have followed. In… Continue Reading
Combining the Nazi Theft Exception in Senate Bill 2212 with Immunity from Seizure: Good Policy or Inconsistent Law?
Posted in Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212, World War IIOpposition to Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (a bill the Art Law Report favors in its frequent commentaries) has been renewed recently. Senate Bill 2212 (already passed by the House of Representatives) would remove the mere display of a work of art in the United States as a satisfactory… Continue Reading
5th Annual Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Institute November 16, 2012
Posted in Events, Legislation, RestitutionI’ll be winging my way to Houston, but otherwise I would be at the New York County Lawyers’ Association’s 5th Annual Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Institute event on Friday, November 16, 2012. Anyone interested should not miss it. The agenda will be as follows: Panel 1: The Law and Business of Sculpture and… Continue Reading
Hans Sachs Collection Epilogue: Posters to Go on Sale in New York at Guernsey’s
Posted in Restitution, World War IIThe Hans Sachs collection that the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe ordered in March be returned to the Sachs heirs will be put up for auction in New York. The collection had more than 12,000 posters by artist that included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ludwig Hohlwein, Lucian Bernhard and Jules Cheret. The Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, a… Continue Reading
Restitution Case Against Czech Republic and Museums Dismissed
Posted in Restitution, World War IIThe U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has dismissed—for a second time—a lawsuit filed there by former attorney Edward Fagan seeking the restitution of various works of art in the National Gallery in Prague and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. A novel strategy of bringing the case not by the… Continue Reading
Restitution and Repatriation at DePaul University on Monday, October 29, 2012
Posted in Cultural Property, RestitutionLooking forward to Monday’s conference in Chicago at DePaul University College of Law, Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, entitled “Restitution and Repatriation: the Return of Cultural Objects.” Lynn Nicholas, author of The Rape of Europa is the keynote speaker. If you like what you see at the Art Law Report-or even if… Continue Reading
Second Circuit Rules Schiele Drawing Not Stolen by Nazis
Posted in Cultural Property, Restitution, World War IIThe Second Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the judgment against David Bakalar concerning ownership of the drawing Seated Woman with Bent Left Leg (Torso). It is a notable decision first and foremost because it affirms the District Court ruling on the merits of whether the drawing was stolen by the Nazis from the Austrian-Jewish collector… Continue Reading
Happy (early) Birthday to the Art Law Report!
Posted in Collections, Copyright, Cultural Property, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, RestitutionWe launched the Art Law Report one year ago tomorrow. Several dozen posts, thousands of visitors and many more views later, a very special thank you to everyone who has read and followed the blog. The connections made literally all around the world are humbling and enlightening. We continue to strive to provide an interesting… Continue Reading
“Restitution and Repatriation, the Return of Cultural Objects” at DePaul University Next Month
Posted in Antiquities, Cultural Property, Restitution, World War IINext month’s symposium at DePaul University College of Law Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law entitled “Restitution and Repatriation, the Return of Cultural Objects” looks terrific. The keynote speaker will be Lynn Nicholas of The Rape of Europa fame, and other topics include provenance research, museum acquisitions, and the moral and ethical quandaries posed… Continue Reading
U.S. Asks Court Not to Sanction Russian Defendants in Chabad Library Case—What Now?
Posted in Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Restitution, World War IICasting further doubt on the practical possibility of using the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to recover cultural artifacts, the U.S. Government has at long last weighed in on the Chabad plaintiffs’ request for contempt sanctions against the Russian defendants, defendants who have defied for more than two years a judgment to return the library of… Continue Reading
Government Tries to Save “Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer” Case Against St. Louis Art Museum, but Did U.S. Miss Its Own Deadline?
Posted in Civil Forfeiture, Collections, Customs, RestitutionAfter the U.S. District Court denied the government’s Motion to Reconsider its earlier dismissal of the claim to the Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer in the St. Louis Museum of Art, the government has tried another procedure to revive the case, one that is normally unremarkable. A review of the filings in the case raises the question, however,… Continue Reading
Best Case for Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (S.B. 2212) May Have been Made by its Sponsors
Posted in Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212, World War IIPerhaps lost in the coverage about Senate Bill 2212 (the Art Law Report no less than anyone else) to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to preclude claims against defendants whose “commercial activity” is limited to the loan of artwork whose ownership is in dispute, is the case made by the sponsors of the bill… Continue Reading
The Other Von Saher Shoe Drops: Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain Dismissed Under Foreign Affairs Preemption
Posted in Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Legislation, Preemption, Restitution, World War IIAn emerging new defense to wartime art restitution claims has claimed another case. Although still confined to one district in California, the trend of dismissing such claims as better suited to resolution through the foreign affairs operations of the federal government simply cannot be ignored; wartime claims already struggling to overcome statutes of limitations could… Continue Reading
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