Posted on: March 26, 2014 by Nina M. Neuhaus
In early March, the Public Prosecutor of the Canton of Basle-City transferred the last 68 out of a total of 4,536 cultural artefacts to Italy. This concludes long lasting proceedings in international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. In 2000, the Italian authorities had requested Switzerland’s mutual legal assistance in criminal proceedings against an antiquities […]
Posted on: February 26, 2014 by Nina M. Neuhaus
The public nature of foreign export laws means that they are not enforceable in Switzerland. The Swiss Federal Act on the International Transfer of Cultural Property (Cultural Property Transfer Act, ‘CPTA’), which came into force on 1st June 2005 and implements the 1970 UNESCO Convention into Swiss law, has partially changed this unsatisfactory situation. Article […]
Posted on: by Nina M. Neuhaus
The Police have recovered one of two items stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in the autumn of 2011. The recovered item is a limestone Persian Achaemenid Bas Relief panel dating from the 5th century BC and depicting the head of a guard. Remarkably, the thief was able to steal the small-scale (21 […]
Posted on: January 26, 2014 by Nina M. Neuhaus
Over a span of thirty-five years, Werner Coninx, scion of a renowned publisher family from Zurich, established one of the most extensive private art collections in Switzerland. At its peak, the collection consisted of c.14,500 artworks. While containing a few masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Ferdinand Hodler, the collection covers a wide range […]
Posted on: January 8, 2014 by Nina M. Neuhaus
In January 2014, the High Court of the Canton of Schaffhausen (Obergericht des Kantons Schaffhausen) ordered the local foundation Stiftung für Neue Kunst, which runs the museum Hallen für Neue Kunst, to restitute one of the central works of the exhibition. The claimants are three art collectors, one of whom has previously served as chairman […]
Posted on: December 11, 2013 by Nina M. Neuhaus
According to recent reports in several Swiss newspapers, including Catherine Boss/Marie Maurisse, ‘Auf den Spuren des Milliardärs’ in the SonntagsZeiting of 8th December and Simone Schmid, ‘Hotel Dolder im Visier der Fahnder’ in the Tagesanzeiger of 9th December, the Swiss Federal Customs Administration (FCA) has opened an investigation into the billionaire owner of one of […]