Search by temporal context
Search by type of dispute resolution process
Search by legal issue
Search by adopted solution
Search by type of object
Search by temporal context
Search by type of dispute
resolution process
Search by legal issue
Search by adopted solution
Search by type of object
Personal tools

Artwork/oeuvre d’art

Lighthouse With Rotating Beam – Flechtheim Heirs and Kunstmuseum Bonn

Lighthouse With Rotating Beam – Flechtheim Heirs and Kunstmuseum Bonn

The heirs of the art dealer and collector Alfred Flechtheim besought the Kunstmuseum Bonn for the restitution of the painting “Lighthouse With Rotating Beam” by Paul Adolf Seehaus, alleging that it was part of Alfred Flechtheim’s collection before he fled Nazi persecution. After consideration of the claim, the Museum decided to keep the painting, but agreed to reimburse the heirs for half its market value.

Read More…

Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory – Konowaloff v. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory – Konowaloff v. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ivan Morozov’s extensive art collection, which included the painting by Cézanne called Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory, was confiscated by the Bolsheviks and declared property of the state. Stephen Clark purchased Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory from the Second Museum of Western Art in 1933. Upon his death, he bequeathed the painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pierre Konowaloff, Morozov’s heir, brought an action for restitution of the painting in the United States federal courts. His claim was unsuccessful and the Metropolitan Museum of Art retained the painting.

Read More…

Madonna and Child in a Landscape – Philipp von Gomperz Heirs and North Carolina Museum of Art

Madonna and Child in a Landscape – Philipp von Gomperz Heirs and North Carolina Museum of Art

In 2000, the North Carolina Museum of Art handed over the painting “Madonna and Child in a Landscape” to Philipp von Gomperz’s heirs after being presented with evidence that it had been looted by the Nazis. The heirs rewarded the Museum’s response by selling the painting to it at a price substantially below its market value.

Read More…

Madonna and Child with Wild Roses – Gross-Eisenstadt Heirs and Utrecht City Council

Madonna and Child with Wild Roses – Gross-Eisenstadt Heirs and Utrecht City Council

German-Jewish businessman Richard Semmel had an extensive art collection which he was forced to sell after fleeing Jewish persecution in Germany. Among this collection was the painting “Madonna and Child with Wild Roses” by Jan van Scorel.

Read More…

Manuscrit du Marquis de Sade – Héritier Nordmann et héritier de Noailles et Gérard Lhéritier

Manuscrit du Marquis de Sade – Héritier Nordmann et héritier de Noailles et Gérard Lhéritier

Les « Cent Vingt Journées de Sodome » du Marquis de Sade avait été dérobé à la famille de Nouailles puis acquis par un collectionneur suisse – Gérard Nordmann – qui a toujours refusé de la rendre. C’est grâce à un accord entre l’héritier des Nouailles et l’héritier Nordmann que le manuscrit a pu retourner en France, où il a été classé trésor national en 2017.

Read More…

Marienkirche Window Panels – Germany and Russia, State Hermitage Museum, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

Marienkirche Window Panels – Germany and Russia, State Hermitage Museum, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

In 1997, 111 panels originally forming a window of the St. Marienkirche (St Mary Church) in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder were located in the Russian State Hermitage Museum. They were brought to Russia by Soviet troops following World War II. In 2001, after difficult negotiations, Russia agreed to return the panels to Germany. In exchange, the German Government offered to finance the reconstruction of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God located near Novgorod. A second group of 6 panels found in 2005 in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts was returned to Germany in 2008.

Read More…

Matisse Painting – Jeanneret v. Vichey

Matisse Painting – Jeanneret v. Vichey

A painting by Henri Matisse was unlawfully exported from Italy to New York because its owner, Anna Vichey, never acquired the mandatory export license in 1970. The painting was then sold to a Swiss art dealer named Marie Jeanneret and delivered to Geneva, Switzerland. After discovering the cloud on the title of the painting, Mme. Jeanneret was unable to sell the painting.

Read More…

Nähschule – Max Silberberg Heirs and Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur

Nähschule – Max Silberberg Heirs  and Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur

The painting, “Nähschule – Arbeitssaal im Amsterdamer Waisenhaus” by Max Lieberman, was bequeathed to the Art Museum in Chur (Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur) in 1992, and was claimed in 1999 by the heir of Max Silberberg. The Jewish art collector was forced to sell it in 1934 due to great financial pressure under the growing persecution of Jews at the prelude to the Second World War. In May 2000, the Art Museum in Chur agreed to an unconditional restitution of the painting to the heir.

Read More…

Nature morte au tableau de Picasso – Héritiers Schlesinger et Phillips

Nature morte au tableau de Picasso – Héritiers Schlesinger et Phillips

En 1925, Ernst Schlesinger lègue à Johanna Meyer-Udewald l’usufruit d’une toile de Picasso (« Nature morte au tableau »). De confession juive, Johanna Meyer-Udewald est faite prisonnière par les Nazis et la toile passe par diverses mains avant d’arriver dans celles de Duncan C. Phillips, qui l’acquiert sans connaître son histoire.

Read More…

Odalisque Painting – Paul Rosenberg Heirs and Seattle Art Museum

Odalisque Painting – Paul Rosenberg Heirs and Seattle Art Museum

In June 1999, the Seattle Art Museum returned the painting Oriental Woman Seated on Floor (also known as Odalisque), by Henri Matisse, to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg. The painting was donated to the museum in 1991 by the Bloedel family.

Read More…

On the Shore of the Seine – United States v. Baltimore Museum of Art

On the Shore of the Seine –  United States v. Baltimore Museum of Art

In 1951, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting “On the shore of the Seine” was stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in the United States. Over fifty years later, Marcia Fuqua bought this painting for US $7 at a flea market and tried to auction it off after learning of its value.

Read More…

Portrait d’Isabelle d’Este – Cecchini c. Italie

Portrait d’Isabelle d’Este – Cecchini c. Italie

Dans le cadre d’une procédure pénale, le procureur du Tribunal de Pesaro (Italie) a adressé à la Suisse une demande d’entraide judiciaire portant sur un tableau attribué à Leonardo da Vinci qui aurait été transféré d’Italie en Suisse, par sa propriétaire, sans l’autorisation des autorités italiennes. Après avoir fait séquestrer le tableau, le Ministère public du Tessin ordonne la remise de ce dernier à l’Italie. La propriétaire de l’œuvre recourt contre cette décision jusqu’au Tribunal fédéral, qui casse la décision précédente.

Read More…

Portrait of a Young Peasant – Beyeler v. Italy

Portrait of a Young Peasant – Beyeler v. Italy

In its judgment of 5 January 2000, the European Court of Human Rights held that the Italian State violated Mr. Beyeler’s right to peaceful enjoyment of his possessions while using its pre-emption right over the Van Gogh painting “Portrait of a Young Peasant”.

Read More…

Portrait of a Youth – Reichel Heirs v. Sarah Blodgett Dunbar

Portrait of a Youth – Reichel Heirs v. Sarah Blodgett Dunbar

In the mid-2000s, Claudia Seger-Thomschitz, one of the heirs of Oskar Reichel, attempted to recover the painting “Portrait of a Youth” from Sarah Blodgett Dunbar on the grounds that it had been lost as a result of Nazi persecution. The 2010 appeal decision of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals settled the case in favour of Sarah Blodgett Dunbar.

Read More…

Portrait of Greta Moll – Moll Heirs v. National Gallery of London

Portrait of Greta Moll – Moll Heirs v. National Gallery of London

The “Portrait of Greta Moll” has been subject to a claim for return. The heirs of the painting’s subject argued the painting was stolen in the aftermath of the Second World War and claimed that the National Gallery of London did not purchase the work in good faith. The case has been heard in two courts of the United States.

Read More…

Portrait of Wally – United States and Estate of Lea Bondi and Leopold Museum

Portrait of Wally – United States and Estate of Lea Bondi and Leopold Museum

After having been taken from Lea Bondi, a Jew forced to flee Austria following the Anschluss, the painting “Portrait of Wally” by Egon Schiele was seized by the US Forces at the end of the war. The portrait was first returned by the US Restitution Division to the Austrian Federal Office for Preservation of Historical Monument (BDA).

Read More…

Pulcinell Sculpture – Budge Heirs v. Anonymous Purchaser

Pulcinell Sculpture – Budge Heirs v. Anonymous Purchaser

A sculpture of Pulcinell was purchased by an anonymous buyer at auction in London in 2016. The buyer applied for an export license and the case came before the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest of the United Kingdom. During the review, it was discovered that the sculpture had been subject to forced sale by Nazis in 1937. The heirs of Emma Budge, the dispossessed owner of the sculpture, discovering what had become of the sculpture, attempted to secure its restitution.

Read More…

Quedlinburg Treasures – Quedlinburg Church and Meador Heirs

Quedlinburg Treasures – Quedlinburg Church and Meador Heirs

After the withdrawal of US troops from the medieval town of Quedlinburg in Nazi Germany, the “Quedlinburg Treasures” were found to be missing. This theft was perpetrated by US soldier Joe T. Meador. After his death, the manuscripts passed on to his brother and sister who attempted to sell them. Some manuscripts were purchased by West German entities, whereas the Church of Quedlinburg purchased the rest of the treasures pursuant to a settlement agreement with the Meador Heirs.

Read More…

Road to Calvary – Oppenheimer Heirs and Private Person

In 1935, Nazi authorities took from Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer a painting entitled “Road to Calvary” by Brunswijker Monogrammist and sold it at auction. The painting resurfaced in 2006 when a Dutch private individual brought it to Sotheby’s determined to sell it. Instead of asking for the painting’s restitution, the Oppenheimer heirs demanded a portion of the sale’s proceeds. The Dutch Restitutions Committee issued a binding opinion on the matter, as requested by the parties.

Read More…

Sammlung 101 - City of Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen and Russia

Sammlung 101 - City of Bremen, Kunsthalle Bremen and Russia

In the 1990s, Russia and the City of Bremen began to negotiate for the return of “Sammlung 101”, a collection of 101 drawings. The drawings were transferred from the Kunsthalle Bremen (Bremen Art Museum) to Russia in the aftermath of the Second World War by a Soviet soldier.

Read More…

Document Actions