Posted on: August 19, 2015 by Alexander Herman
A painting was stolen in 1991. It was a work referred to as Girl in Sunlight by Australian impressionist Rupert Bunny (see below). It was owned by James Watt from Melbourne. Watt tried to recover the painting, but there was nothing he could do. He died in 1993. In May 2010 the painting was seized by the […]
Posted on: July 17, 2015 by Alexander Herman
The dispute before the California courts between the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation and the descendants of Lily Cassirer Neubauer has now entered its second decade. Neubauer was forced to sell a painting by Pissarro before fleeing Germany in 1939 and her heirs now claim that it should be returned to them from the Spanish Foundation, the painting’s current possessor. The action brought […]
Posted on: May 8, 2015 by Alexander Herman
An interesting recent article in the New York Times recounts the struggle between two Spanish Museums over the right to display four paintings, including two masterpieces of European art (Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights and Rogier van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross). The works have been held at the Prado Museum in Madrid since being sent […]
Posted on: April 17, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Last month, the Dutch Restitutions Committee published its recommendation regarding a claim brought forward by the heirs of the three Stettiner siblings who ran the Stettiner Gallery in Paris until it was closed during the Second World War. The claim involved a portrait by Salomon Koninck (1609-1656) entitled Old Man with Beard, which currently forms part […]
Posted on: April 8, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Newspapers around the globe last week reported on the story of a Palestinian man from Gaza, Rabie Dardouna, who had unwittingly sold a door with a Banksy mural on it. Banksy had reportedly taken a tour of Gaza following the 2014 Israel-Gaza War and put up a number of characteristic works on bombed-out buildings. This […]
Posted on: March 25, 2015 by Makoto Shimada
Over the last couple of months, Japanese companies have been flocking to galleries to purchase inexpensive artworks. This trend is a result of a significant governmental change in relation to taxation policy which was adopted from January 2015. According to the newly amended Corporate and Income Tax Law Interpretive Regulations announced by the National Tax […]
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: May 16, 2014 by Alexander Herman
This week, the Court of Appeal of Victoria in Australia, rendered an appeal decision regarding a painting by the celebrated Australian impressionist Rupert Bunny. The work has sometimes been referred to as ‘Female Reading in Sun”. The case, Levy v. Watt [2014] VSCA 60, which came down on 14 May 2014, involved an analysis of […]
Posted on: May 9, 2014 by Hélène Deslauriers
In Manhattan, Justice Matthew Cooper of the New York State Supreme Court ruled recently to prevent the owners of the Seagram Building from removing, at least for the time being, a stage curtain painted by Picasso stating there is ‘clearly a danger of irreprable injury’. The painting, known as Le Tricorne was executed by Picasso […]
Posted on: November 12, 2013 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
Two paintings by George Stubbs sold at auction in February this year have been saved for the nation following the imposition by the DCMS of a temporary bar on their export. The paintings, dating back to 1773, of a dingo and a kangaroo sold for £5.5m and were the first depictions of these animals in […]