A Nazi cloud over title – Auction houses refuse to sell Goering’s painting

by Jessica | May 14, 2013 | Art Law, Art Lawyer, Auction Sales, Disputed Title, Restitution

On 21st March this year a claim was filed against Sotheby’s auction house for refusing to refund a buyer his money when it transpired that the eighteenth century French old master painting he bought for $57,600 was once owned by Hermann Goering and was now worthless....

Wind of Change – Part 3: Don’t look back! Dallas returns Orpheus to Turkey

by Jessica | Mar 15, 2013 | Art Law, Art Lawyer, Cultural Heritage, Restitution

Whilst many museums have feared Turkey’s increasingly aggressive stance in reclaiming their cultural heritage, (museums such as The British Museum, Pergamon and Metroplitan Museum of Art have all faced recent restitution claims) at the Dallas Museum they have taken a...

Wind of Change – Part 2: Canada’s restitution project

by Jessica | Mar 13, 2013 | Art Law, Art Lawyer, Renaissance, Restitution

“Use every means of transport to get all works of art out of Florence …. saving works of art from English and Americans. In fine get anything away that you can get hold of. Heil Hitler.” Heinrich Himmler (HW1/3113) This chilling message, underscores the Nazis desire...

Wind of Change – Part 1: Restitution, France

by Jessica | Mar 12, 2013 | Art Law, Art Lawyer, Restitution

Restitution claims and cultural heritage claims seem to be gathering pace. After years of rather slow progress on these fronts, these stories now seem to be hitting the news on a regular basis. Could it be “the times they are a changin’?” The French Minister of...

Cultural Heritage Claims Get Political Over One Of The Seven Wonder’s Of The World – Statutes From The Halicarnassus

by Jessica | Dec 10, 2012 | Art Law, Art Lawyer, Cultural Heritage, Disputed Title, Restitution

In what has been a steady and systematic push by the Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay on the restitution of cultural artefacts from museums of the world, has now culminated in a legal test case due to be lodged before the European Court of Human...

Saddam Hussein’s Bottom

by Jessica | Mar 18, 2012 | Art Law, Art Lawyer, Cultural Heritage, Restitution

Cultural heritage issues spark up again over the strange case of the attempted sale of Saddam Hussein’s bronze bottom This was a strange cultural heritage case for 2011 that concerned the Saddam Hussein monument from central Baghdad that was famously brought down in...