Tag Archives: seizure

Accessory charges brought against former Louvre Director

Posted on: June 10, 2022 by Alexander Herman

“I’m confident in saying there will be more seizures and more prosecutions arising out of this investigation…” Those were the words of Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, speaking to Ben Lewis last year on the Art Bust podcast. He was referring to an antiquities trafficking ring he’d uncovered that had been dealing in artefacts smuggled […]

Fabergé in London – Russia sanctions and immunity from seizure

Posted on: May 25, 2022 by Alexander Herman

On 8 May, the exhibition Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution concluded at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Several of the pieces on display had been lent by collections in Russia, namely those of the Kremlin in Moscow and the Hermitage in St Petersburg. The exhibition, which opened on 20 November 2021, began in a […]

Court decision on ‘technicality’ prevents claim over allegedly fake antiquity

Posted on: September 1, 2021 by Alexander Herman

On 9 August a decision came down from the High Court of England and Wales that imparts an important lesson about limitation periods and related timelines for the service of proceedings. The decision also reveals useful information about a particular dispute over allegedly fake antiquities, showing just what happens when negotiations between buyer and seller […]

IAL in New York City – Event on international exhibitions

Posted on: March 11, 2020 by Alexander Herman

Bright lights, big city. On 27 February, the IAL partnered with the Art Law Committee and European Affairs Committee of the New York City Bar Association to present an event on international art exhibitions in New York. The proceedings ran in the Main Hall of the Bar’s neo-classical headquarters on West 44th Street in midtown […]

Recent American Restitutions

Posted on: December 14, 2018 by Alexander Herman

American prosecutors have been busy of late. Not only has New York Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos been active over the past 18 months in seeking seizure and forfeiture orders for stolen or looted property, but the US Attorney’s office has been busy as well. Added to this is the favourable stance the US courts […]

New York seizure of a “recovered” Persian artefact

Posted on: November 28, 2017 by Alexander Herman and Holly Woodhouse

Last month, on the 21st of October, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (along with local police) seized an ancient Achaemenid Persian bas-relief from the European Fine Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. The item was being offered for sale by the London-based art dealer Robert Wace for roughly $1.2 million. The […]

International Art Loans: 7 June seminar

Posted on: March 29, 2016 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

On Tuesday 7 June 2016 from 2.00-6.00 pm there will be an Institute of Art & Law seminar in association with Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP held at the firm’s London offices in Milton Street EC2Y 9BH. The seminar will explore the legal issues surrounding international art loans, covering questions relating to art loan agreements, jurisdiction and conflict of laws, government indemnity […]

Canada returns Khajuraho sculpture to India

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 […]

What To Do With East Germany’s Looted Art?

Posted on: August 5, 2014 by Alexander Herman

Much has been said and written about the present day treatment of Nazi-looted art. But there is another, less well-known chapter to Germany’s past. This involves the confiscation of works of art from East German citizens by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Often the confiscations occurred because the owners of the works were considered members […]

No Attachment for Iranian Antiquities, Once Again

Posted on: April 24, 2014 by Alexander Herman

A group of nine individuals, survivors of a vicious 1997 Hamas terrorist attack in Jerusalem, have once again failed to seize certain Iranian antiquities in US museums in order to satisfy judgment obtained from a D.C. Court. The 2003 default judgment from the D.C. District Court had held Iran, as sponsor of Hamas at the time, […]