Restitution Discussion Group Archives
| Sender: |
Peter Junger |
| Date: |
Thu, 8 Oct 1998 09:59:09 -0300 |
| Re: |
007, restitution, and the vindication of property rights revisited |
If I understand
correctly what Gotha v Sotheby's is all about, there was a very similar
case some years ago in the United States (except that there was not such
a complex change of possession before it got into the hands of the defendants):
KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN zu WEIMAR v. ELICOFON, 678 F.2d 1150 (1982).
The opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals begins:
In this diversity suit involving two foreign countries (East Germany
and West Germany), a foreign national, and an American citizen, we are
asked to determine the ownership of two priceless Albrecht Duerer portraits
executed around 1499. They were stolen in 1945 from a castle located in
what is now East Germany and fortuitously discovered in 1966 in the Brooklyn
home of Edward I. Elicofon, an American citizen, where they had been openly
displayed by him to friends since his good-faith purchase of them over
20 years earlier without knowledge that they were Duerers. The search
for an answer to the deceptively simple question, "Who owns the paintings?,"
involves a labyrinthian journey through 19th century German dynastic law,
contemporary German property law, Allied Military Law during the post-War
occupation of Germany, New York State law, and intricate conceptions of
succession and sovereignty in international law.
--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland,
OH
URL: http://samsara.law.cwru.edu
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