For those who believe that one today is worth two tomorrows, prejudgment interest offers a significant judicial remedy. In an unprecedented holding on July 12, 2021, the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court, County of New York, applied the prejudgment rule in favor of the rightful owners
Continue Reading UPDATE—New York Court Awards Statutory Prejudgment Interest to Grünbaum Estate’s Heirs
Woman in a Black Pinafore (l) and Woman Hiding Her Face (r)
Following the New York Appellate Division’s affirmance of the New York State Supreme Court’s decision in Reif v. Nagy ordering the turnover of two works of art transferred under duress, if not stolen, following the Nazi takeover of
Continue Reading UPDATE – Dispute over Ownership of Nazi Victim’s Art Turns to Pre-judgment Interest
On June 9, 2020, the Second Circuit effectively terminated Sotheby’s efforts to bring suit against a foreign nation for interference with one of its auctions, reversing and remanding Barnet v. Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic to the Southern District of New York with instructions to dismiss
Continue Reading Second Circuit Holds that FSIA Bars Suit Against Sovereign Asserting Cultural Patrimony Claim
At Hughes Hubbard, we are a full service firm with the suite of resources to provide clients with a reach and set of capabilities that is unique. In this video, our Art Law lawyers highlight some of the high-end work we do – and the number of issues at stake
Continue Reading Who We Are: A Look Inside Our Art Law Practice Group
Read time: 6 minutes
In a surprise April 5, 2018 decision in Reif v. Nagy (Index No. 161799/15), the Commercial Division of New York State Supreme Court ordered two pieces of alleged Nazi-looted art turned over to relatives of the original Jewish owner, Fritz Grunbaum…
Continue Reading Surprise Decision in Reif v. Nagy Raises As Many Questions As It Answers
A newly enacted federal statute is intended to facilitate loans of art to U.S. museums from government-owned museums abroad, by protecting the art from private claimants while in the U.S. In recent years, fear that a U.S. court might order the seizure of artworks loaned to a U.S. museum for
Continue Reading Newly Enacted U.S. Statute Protects Foreign Museums from Art Seizures
Read time: 4 minutes
No one knows exactly how much art and cultural property the Nazis stole during what Agnes Peresztegi has called “the greatest art theft in history.” According to the Holocaust-Era Looted Art: A World-Wide Preliminary Overview, presented at the 2009 Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague, a “very considerable amount of looted movable artwork…and [cultural] property” held both privately and publicly remains to be recovered more than seventy years later. That same overview found…
Continue Reading A Proposed Uniform Statute of Limitations for Nazi-Plundered Art and Cultural Property