The Chabad Lubavitch plaintiffs who have been trying for more than six years to obtain the return of the library of Menachem Schneerson—a case which has resulted in an embargo of Russian art loans to the United States for nearly a year—took the unexpected step this week of asking the court to refrain from ruling on a pending motion to find the Russian defendants in contempt. The Russian defendants—who have not appeared or filed anything since refusing to participate further last year, resulting in the default judgment against them—had until October 18 to contest the contempt allegations related to their failure to obey the judgment against them (to return the library).
The plaintiffs have now requested that the Court hold the ruling in abeyance “to facilitate Chabad’s attempts to commence negotiations with the Russian Government, and to encourage the Russian Government to rethink its position of refusing to comply with the Court’s judgment.”
That is a hopeful statement in a case marked by the defendants’ refusal to participate at all, even after the United States weighed in and plaintiffs' assurances that artworks would not be seized. A reciprocal embargo by the Met earlier has not yet broken the stalemate either, at least publicly. As with every stage of this case, the next step should be an interesting one.
