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: September 24, 2015 by Alexander Herman
The Spoliation Advisory Panel, the UK body that hears disputes relating to Nazi-looted art held in national collections, has delivered two important reports this month. The first is a follow-up on an earlier 2014 recommendation that the Tate return a Constable painting, ‘Beaching a Boat, Brighton’, to the descendants of the painting’s original owner, Baron Hatvany of Hungary. The Baron had […]
Posted on: April 29, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Earlier this month, it was reported that Canada was returning a 900-year-old sandstone statue to India. This was done with all the necessary pomp and ceremony, with each nation’s prime minister more than ready for a dual photo op with the piece. Of course it represented much more than mere cultural restitution: as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated, cultural relations between […]
Posted on: May 2, 2014 by Alexander Herman
The great restitutionist Colin Renfrew, better known perhaps as Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, has recently written a piece in the Art Newspaper on the return of seven of the fifteen pieces of the Sevso Treasure. This story was first commented on in this blog here. Renfrew was careful to explain the tricky situation regarding the ownership of […]
Posted on: March 26, 2014 by Alexander Herman
After a saga that has lasted a quarter of a century, the Sevso Treasure has been returned to Hungary. This hoard of silver objects from the late Roman Empire, said to have originated in the area around Lake Balaton in Hungary, had been in England since appearing on the London art market in 1980. The […]