Posted on: August 6, 2015 by Alexander Herman
It has been some time since we discussed the Gurlitt affair in these pages. And what has happened since? Well, the challenge to Gurlitt’s will by his cousin Uta Werner has continued on. It is now before the Higher Regional Court in Munich (Oberlandesgericht München) and just last month the Court requested a psychological opinion concerning Gurlitt’s competence […]
Posted on: July 8, 2015 by Alexander Herman
As the European Parliament is set to vote tomorrow on the amended Report dealing with the harmonisation of ‘Freedom of Panorama’ across Europe, the opposition to the Report has taken off. This can be seen in the nearly 500,000 digital signatures acquired in the last week alone protesting the current provisions of the Report: notably the […]
Posted on: February 27, 2015 by Alexander Herman
A complaint was filed this week in a US court which seeks the return of the Guelph Treasure, a famous collection of German medieval items, currently held by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The complaint is being brought by descendants of the one-time Jewish owners of the treasure, who had to part with it in 1935. The collection had […]
Posted on: November 25, 2014 by Alexander Herman
As reported yesterday, an agreement has been reached between the Bern Museum of Fine Arts (or Kunstmuseum), the German Republic and the Bavarian State on how to deal with the works of art bequeathed by Cornelius Gurlitt in his will to the Museum. A summary of the agreement is now available in English. In general […]
Posted on: November 24, 2014 by Nina M. Neuhaus
Alea iacta est… The decision in the Causa Gurlitt was highly anticipated. On Saturday, the board of trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts Bern (‘Museum’) decided to accept the bequest of the late Cornelius Gurlitt. This morning, the decision was publicly announced in a joint press meeting by the German government, the State of […]
Posted on: November 20, 2014 by Nina M. Neuhaus
On 26th November, the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts Bern will decide whether to accept the bequest of Cornelius Gurlitt. Unexpectedly, one of Gurlitt’s two cousins, Uta Werner, has threatened to challenge the will. Her claim is based on a psychiatric report, which she had commissioned from Dr Helmut Hausner, chief physician at […]
Posted on: November 7, 2014 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
Yesterday was the Annual General Meeting of the UK Registrars Group, held at the Banqueting Suite inside the Tower of London. The Group had invited the IAL to present on the topic of the Gurlitt Art Trove. The talk, delivered by Alex Herman, was entitled The Gurlitt Affair: Some Thoughts on the Legal Issues and dealt with the circumstances […]
Posted on: March 12, 2014 by Alexander Herman
The first claim has been filed in relation to the artworks seized from the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt. The plaintiff is David Toren, a descendent of David Friedmann, the wealthy art collector from Breslau (now Wroclaw), who was persecuted as a Jew in Nazi Germany and died in 1942. The claim, dated 5th March 2014, […]
Posted on: February 6, 2014 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
The Victoria and Albert Museum has published online two volumes which record what the Nazi regime did with confiscated ‘degenerate art’. Hitler believed post-impressionist modern art, including Expressionists such as Kandinsky and Otto Dix, to be “evidence of a deranged mind”. He ordered more than 16,000 artworks, including works by Van Gogh and Man Ray, […]