Two wonderful museums recently announced plans to sell major works of art. In one case, some 40 paintings, American masterpieces among them, will be sold at auction. In another, more than 400 photographs will also be sold. The former case has prompted a nationwide outcry, the latter…effectively nothing. The differences and similarities between the two underscore the aspirational rules that govern what is known as “deaccessioning,” but also remind us that principles and the goals they are meant to reach are not always the same thing.
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Topics:
Berkshire Museum,
Deaccessioning,
MoMA,
Pittsfield,
General Electric,
Housatonic,
Lake Onota,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Norman Rockwell,
Frederic Church,
Albert Bierstadt,
Alexander Calder,
Zenas Crane,
Williamstown,
Lenox,
North Adams,
Mass MoCA,
Lee Rosenbaum,
Felix Salmon,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
American Alliance of Museums,
AAM,
AAMD,
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Delaware Museum of Art,
Waconah Park
Two pending cases have invoked the new law
A recent article in the New York Times highlights the change that the recent passage of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2016 has had on disputes about the timeliness of claims for allegedly Nazi-looted art. The odd part, however, is that the case cited by the Times is not one in which the HEAR Act has been invoked or argued, though it could be some day. As far as we are aware, there has been briefing on the effect of the HEAR Act in two cases, my clients’ claim against the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) and Germany in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, and Laurel Zuckerman’s claim as representative of the Leffmann estate in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Only two months after its passage, the law is already changing the terms of debate.
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Topics:
HEAR Act,
Richard Nagy,
Fritz Grünbaum,
David Bakalar,
Bakalar v. Vavra,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Egon Schiele,
Seated Woman wiht Bent Left Leg (Torso),
Laurel Zuckerman,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Germany,
Alice Leffmann
A U.S. District Court judge has taken the recent invitation of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and transferred to Oklahoma a lawsuit by Léone Meyer over ownership of a Camille Pissarro painting at the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum at the University of Oklahoma. The case will now proceed in Oklahoma, where the museum seems likely to assert both sovereign immunity under Oklahoma law, as well as an argument that transfers in Switzerland conferred legal title to the museum as a successor to those transfers. However counterintuitive it seems, it may yet be that a court could agree with Meyer that the painting was stolen, but agree with Oklahoma that a Swiss litigation in the 1950s about whether it was sold to a good faith buyer means that Oklahoma holds full title and ownership.
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Topics:
David Findlay Jr. Inc.,
due process,
third party beneficiary,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Raoul Meyer,
Nazi Occupation,
American Alliance of Museums,
University of Oklahoma,
Aaron and Clara Weitzenhofer,
Judge Colleen McMahon,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,
AAM,
Vichy,
La bergère rentrent des moutons,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
David Findlay Galleries,
World War II,
CPLR 301,
Switzerland,
Leone Meyer,
long art statute,
Camille Pissarro,
Museums,
personal jurisdiction,
AAMD,
Christoph Bernoulli,
Swiss judgment,
Rep. Mike Reynolds
As we reported last week, the U.S. District Court dismissed claims against the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, the University of Oklahoma, and associated Oklahoma defendants, over title to the Camille Pissarro painting La bergère rentrent des moutons (a case in which I represented the David Findlay Jr. Gallery).
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Topics:
David Findlay Jr. Inc.,
due process,
third party beneficiary,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Raoul Meyer,
Nazi Occupation,
American Alliance of Museums,
University of Oklahoma,
Aaron and Clara Weitzenhofer,
Judge Colleen McMahon,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,
AAM,
Vichy,
La bergère rentrent des moutons,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
David Findlay Galleries,
World War II,
CPLR 301,
Switzerland,
Leone Meyer,
long art statute,
Camille Pissarro,
Museums,
personal jurisdiction,
AAMD,
Christoph Bernoulli,
Swiss judgment
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed the much-publicized claims by Leone Meyer against the University of Oklahoma and related Oklahoma public officials and insitutions for the return of La bergère rentrent des moutons by Camille Pissarro, currently in the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art. In full disclosure: I represented David Findlay, Jr., Inc. in the action, who was dismissed from the action last year by agreement.
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Topics:
David Findlay Jr. Inc.,
due process,
third party beneficiary,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Raoul Meyer,
Nazi Occupation,
American Alliance of Museums,
University of Oklahoma,
Aaron and Clara Weitzenhofer,
Judge Colleen McMahon,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,
AAM,
Vichy,
La bergère rentrent des moutons,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
David Findlay Galleries,
World War II,
CPLR 301,
Switzerland,
Leone Meyer,
long art statute,
Camille Pissarro,
personal jurisdiction,
AAMD,
Christoph Bernoulli,
Swiss judgment
A New York Supreme Court judge dismissed the claims filed against the Metropolitan Museum of Art over whether its admissions policy was inconsistent with city law and the museum’s charter. Lost in many of the headlines, however, is that the entire lawsuit was not dismissed; another claim for misrepresentation is, for the moment, still alive.
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Topics:
Theodore Grunewald,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
TomášNadrchal,
Filip Saska,
Patricia Nicholson,
Stephen Michelman,
City of New York,
Litigation,
Museums,
Manhattan County Supreme Court,
Shirley Werner Kornreich
For the second time in less than four months, a complaint has been filed against the Metropolitan Museum of Art over its admissions fee policy. Whereas the November, 2012 action seeks injunctive relief to compel the Met to change its practices, the newest case has been filed as a class action and seeks money damages as well. The Museum has responded forcefully in a statement by Director Thomas P. Campbell challenging the new case.
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Topics:
Theodore Grunewald,
New York City,
General Obligations Law § 349,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Filip Saska,
Patricia Nicholson,
Stephen Michelman,
Tomáš Nadrchal,
Thomas P. Campbell,
Museums
A complaint filed against the Metropolitan Museum of Art over its admissions fee policy is gaining widespread coverage. Although the headlines center on the plaintiffs’ allegations of fraud, Theodore Grunewald and Patricia Nicholson (the two plaintiffs) also put forward several other legal theories.
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Topics:
Theodore Grunewald,
General Obligations Law § 349,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Patricia Nicholson,
Central Park,
fraud,
Litigation,
Museums,
Admissions Fee
