Art & Cultural Heritage

Overview

Our firm’s Art & Cultural Heritage practice focuses on plaintiff-oriented litigation and dispute resolution, involving a variety of cases dealing with looted art claims on behalf of individual holocaust victims, Jewish communities, American-Indian tribes or foundations and cultural institutions.

Whether dealing with Nazi-looted cases or more recent stolen artifacts cases, we have successfully represented a range of clients in complex litigation settings involving multiple jurisdictions, legal rules and tribunals. We have also successfully navigated to unique challenges involving such cases, such as the imbrication of multiple legal regimes, careful management of client expectations and sensitivities to cultural differences, and the importance of research efforts and interacting with historians and outside experts.

Recent Matters

We have successfully obtained the restitution of a Pissarro painting on behalf of a French Jewish family from a museum owned by a state university in Oklahoma. The painting is currently on display at the Orsay museum in Paris, France.

We have successfully obtained the restitution of a religious artifact on behalf of a Jewish community in Eastern Europe from a U.S. collector who attempted to sell it through a major New York auction house.

As counsel for several Arizona and New Mexico American-Indian tribes, we have been able to obtain the restitution of several religious artifacts from US-based private collectors and auction houses. We also advocated on behalf of those tribes before French jurisdictions to stop auction houses from auctioning similar religious artifacts.

Over the past 9 years, we have represented the Holocaust Art Restitution Project, a not-for-profit group based in Washington, DC, dedicated to the identification and restitution of artworks looted during armed conflicts. Our representation included corporate services, assistance with expert witness testimonies during litigation, interactions with several federal agencies in criminal investigations, as well as lobbying activities related to certain legislations.

We are currently representing the heirs of a major “Ecole de Paris” artist whose personal collection of sculptures was looted in Paris during the Nazi occupation.

Speaking Engagements

  • Panel: Recent Developments in Cultural Heritage Restitution Cases: Where Are We and Where Are We going?, The Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation Seventh Annual Conference, Mar 25, 2016
  • US Tribal Art Claims versus the French Auction Houses & French Courts: The Hopi Case, New York University School of Professional Studies' Conference Art Crime and Cultural Heritage: Fakes, Forgeries, and Looted and Stolen Art, Jun 5, 2015
  • Due Diligence In Cultural Heritage Litigation: Is There a Minimum Legal Threshold?, Oct 11, 2013

Media Appearances