Posted on: November 11, 2024 by Livia Solaro
On 30 September, 2024, the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued the latest decision in the long running de Csepel restitution saga. After almost 15 years of litigation (or 25, if one considers the initial lawsuit filed in Hungary), the case has now been narrowed down to the recovery of one of […]
Posted on: November 26, 2022 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
The latest issue of Art Antiquity and Law has now been published and hard copies are being sent to subscribers and members, with the digital version available online to subscribers who have chosen this option. This issue contains a thought-provoking piece by Alexander Herman in which he points out that the recent Charities Act 2022 […]
Posted on: September 12, 2022 by Stephanie Drawdy
Heirs of German Jewish dealers who seek restitution of a collection of Christian reliquaries known as the Welfenschatz (or Guelph Treasure) have received a stinging dismissal of their suit from a Washington D.C. district court. The case made headlines in 2021 after it was remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court to the D.C. Circuit for […]
Posted on: April 25, 2022 by Stephanie Drawdy
The seventeen-year title dispute over a Parisian winter streetscape by Camille Pissarro has now tilted in favor of the heirs whose German-Jewish ancestor was forced to part with the masterwork during the Holocaust. On 21 April 2022, the United States Supreme Court unanimously vacated a judgment by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that had […]
Posted on: January 19, 2022 by Stephanie Drawdy
For just over one hour on Tuesday 18th January, the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument centered on procedural issues that will decide the next steps in the protracted case involving a Camille Pissarro masterwork.[1] The painting, Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi, effet de pluie, is currently held by Spain in its Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo […]
Posted on: February 12, 2021 by Stephanie Drawdy
The much-anticipated ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Welfenschatz (or ‘Guelph Treasure’) restitution case (previously discussed here) was issued on 3 February 2021, rendering precedent on the interpretation of the ‘expropriation exception’ of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).[1] Enacted to lift the “baseline presumption of immunity” given to foreign states under the […]
Posted on: May 13, 2020 by Stephanie Drawdy
Updated: May 27, 2020 Efforts to recover an art collection sold in the Netherlands during Nazi reign have met with a fruitless end – yet again. A U.S. District Court recently decided that the sale of the collection constituted a “genocidal taking” involving duress in violation of international law. However, the alleged heir to the […]