Tag: Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

Art Law: US Supreme Court on Welfenschatz and Sovereign Immunity

4 February 2021
by Peter Bert
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Yesterday, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp (S. Ct. 2021) and today, we have Ted Folkman of Letters Blogatory reviewing it: 

This is the case of the Welfenschatz, the Guelph treasure said to have been stolen by the Nazis from its Jewish owners. The claim was that Hermann Göring, one of Hitler’s most powerful ministers, had coerced the Jewish owners of the treasure to sell it for a fraction of its value to the Prussian government in the early 1930s. Read More

Art Law: S.D.N.Y. Grants Immunity to Bavaria, Dismisses Restitution Claim for Picasso’s “Madame Soler”

22 July 2014
by Peter Bert
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In an earlier post, I had reported about the restitution claim brought against Bavaria in New York in 2013. The heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy were seeking the restitution of Picasso’s “Madame Soler” from the Bavarian State Painting Collection (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen). In a decision on June 27, 2014, Judge Rakoff dismissed the action, on the basis that  Bavaria was entitled to sovereign immunity. Read More

Art Law: U.S. Litigation in the Gurlitt Case Against Bavaria, Federal Republic of Germany

6 March 2014
by Peter Bert
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One of the posts here on the Gurlitt case was entitled Litigation is Coming Closer in Gurlitt Case. Nicholas O’Donnell reports in the Art Law Report today that the first case has indeed been brought –  by David Toren in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany.  Nick’s post contains a summary of the facts, a discussion of the jurisdictional issues under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and a link to the complaint.