Litigation | Cultural Property & Archaeology Law

Browsing All Posts filed under »Litigation«

80-Year-Old Munich Man with Confiscated Trove of Nazi-Looted Art Breaks Silence

November 20, 2013

An 80-year-old Munich man inherited upwards of a thousand pieces of artwork from his father, and 500 of the works are suspected to include pieces taken from Jews during the Nazi regime. During the war, Cornelius Gurlitt’s father was one of the four major art dealers for Hitler himself. The German government confiscated the trove […]

Putin Wears “Happy Smile” to Return Ancient Books to Jewish Group

June 19, 2013

There has been a long-running US-based legal conflict between Russian and the Jewish Chabad-Lubvitch movement, based in Brooklyn, over a collection of books. The group’s leader was permitted to leave the Soviet Union in 1927 but his books ended up in the hands of the Russian government in the process. The Jewish group filed and […]

Threat of Lawsuits Stifles Expert Opinions on Art Authenticity

June 26, 2012

Several high-profile lawsuits have sparked a growing reluctance among art scholars to speak publicly about the authenticity of artwork. Such opinions can no doubt make or destroy a fortune. As these potential fortunes rise, so does the risk incurred by experts in providing such opinions. For many experts, this risk has now tipped the scale […]

How to Become an Art Lawyer: Guest Post by Leila Amineddoleh

May 1, 2012

So many law students and lawyers have contacted me in the last few years asking how to break into the field of art law that I knew I had to come up with a good response. The truth is, I’m far more of a cultural property law aficionado than an art lawyer! So I solicited […]

Titanic Hull to be Sold at Auction

January 17, 2012

On April 11, 2012, more than 5,000 artifacts from the Titanic shipwreck will be sold at auction in New York. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith ordered that the collection must be sold as a single lot, further requiring that the future owner to make the artifacts available for public viewing, historical review, scientific and […]

Ancient Coin Import Restriction Test Case Dismissed

August 11, 2011

A Maryland federal judge dismissed the ACCG’s test case challenging federal import restrictions as to ancient coins. In February, 2010, I explained: The ACCG complains that it had 23 coins seized from it by customs upon entering into the States from the UK, where the coins had been purchased, sans documentation of provenance. The argument […]

Wampanoag File Suit to Stop Wind Farm in Nantucket Sound

July 13, 2011

The Wampanoag tribe has finally delivered on their long threatened lawsuit against the Department of the Interior, in an attempt to stop construction of Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound. The Wampanoag filed a complaint in the US District Court on July 6, alleging that construction of the 130-turbine offshore wind farm would be in violation […]

The Four Corners Sideshow

May 1, 2011

Federal prosecutors have entered into deals in three more of the Four Corners antiquities trafficking cases. For Meredith Smith, they’ll drop the charges if she doesn’t get charged with any other crimes in the next six months. Tad Kreth had his charges reduced from 17 counts to 1, and the prosecutors will recommend probation. And […]

Cultural Property Law on January 22, 2011: Mosquito Bombers, the Golden Horn, and (Not?) Caligula’s Tomb

January 22, 2011

I’ve been down the rabbit hole for the past couple weeks, preparing for the Spring semester and recovering from the holidays, but here are a few recent happenings on the cultural property law front: Last week, Italian police arrested a looter loading an ancient statue into his truck. The arrest led to the discovery of […]

Oral Arguments Scheduled in Black Swan Case

November 9, 2010

We’ve been following the Black Swan case fairly closely here on the Cultural Property & Archaeology Law Blog, and in the last month or two I’ve been getting emails and comments asking what’s going on in the case. But, finally! There is news to report! Oral arguments have been scheduled on Odyssey Marine Exploration’s appeal […]