Art Law by Jones Michael E.;

Author:Jones, Michael E.; [Jones, Michael E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

SUMMARY

Solving the puzzle of who owns art from the past, especially Holocaust-era art once deemed “degenerate,” is complex and confusing. Thousands of works of art were systematically and methodologically confiscated or transferred under duress from Jewish owners by the Nazis. Dealers, collectors, and museums both in and out of occupied territories for below market value prices acquired many works by modern artists such as Chagall and Schiele. In many cases, good faith purchasers living in the United States acquired these paintings, drawings, and other cultural objects.

In the 1990s a concerted international effort gained steam to develop a set of guiding standards eventually known as the Washington Principles to promote the restitution of Nazi-looted or stolen art. Returning plundered cultural property to its rightful owner in practice has proven to be a difficult task. In part, the issue of who owns the art from European Jewish families turns on which state or country’s law applies. In Anglo-American nations a thief cannot pass good title. However, the affirmative defenses of statutes of limitations and laches have limited the ability of heirs of missing art to successfully lay claim in many of the states in the United States, except New York. The state of New York as a major cultural center has taken the lead in limiting the application of these defenses.

Historically, plundered art more often than not has remained with the plunderer. Pressures brought by globalization, social media, and public relations campaigns have encouraged public museums and cultural institutions to consider returning to the “original” owner treasures taken from long ago. International treaties and national laws today work to prevent the removal and transfer of culturally sensitive objects from the site of origin.

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