A 12-year wrangle over a rare collection of medieval ecclesiastical art sold by Jewish art dealers to the Nazis in 1935 arrived in front of the highest court in the US last Monday, in a landmark case defence lawyers say could open the floodgates for restitution battles from all over the world to be fought via the US.

The Guardian - Read the Article here

An excelled piece of work, for our German speakers.

By Prof. Dr. Kerstin von der Decken, Prof. Dr. Frank Fechner and Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller.

Nomos Shop

UNESCO, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, the European Commission and the Council of Europe are organizing an international online conference on multilateralism, cultural heritage protection and the fight against illicit trafficking from 16 to 18 November.

Unesco-Link

The Eighth Session of the Subsidiary Committee of the Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property took place on 27 and 28 October 2020 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.  More Here

_{Unesco accused of turning a blind eye to destruction of heritage sites, as bitter skirmish between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed territory drags on.}

www.theartnewspaper.com

The summer school aims to develop the students’ awareness and general understanding of the main substantive themes of international cultural heritage law, namely: the trade in cultural objects; the restitution of stolen or looted artworks; the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict; and the protection of the built heritage from natural and human-induced disasters.

Final deadline: 15.04.2020                        More information here

The world of art and antiques is the largest lawful unregulated business on the planet, and art crime is estimated to be second to the illegal narcotics trade in terms of annual revenue generated. With the sector being so lenient on legislation, it has found itself favoured by those seeking to launder their money.

Euronews

The United Kingdom has offered to assist Nigeria in retrieving the Ife Bronze Head, an antiquity stolen at National Museum, Jos in 1987 and found with a Belgian collector in London, about 30 years after.

Full Article in AllAfrica

A stolen 15th-century book by the famed Persian poet Hafez has been recovered by a Dutch art detective. The gold-leafed volume worth around one million euros ($1.1 million) was found to be missing from the collection of an Iranian antiques dealer after his death in Germany in 2007.

                                             Full Article: The News.pk

^{In July 2018 the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (MLD5) was adopted by the EU as part of the Juncker Commission’s response to the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 and Brussels in 2016, the Panama Papers scandal, and increased scrutiny of free ports following the Yves Bouvier affair. The UK has until 10 January 2020 to transpose MLD5 into national law.}

^{Link to the article: Apollo Magazine (needs free registration)}

The 16th November 2019 marked the 47^th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. This Convention protects the world’s most outstanding places. The idea of creating an international movement for protecting heritage emerged after World War I. The 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage developed from the merging of two separate movements: the first focusing on the preservation of cultural sites, and the other dealing with the conservation of nature.   More under the UNESCO site

The HSLA has kindly been invited and one of our lawyers, Ms. Eleni Dimonitsa,  is very much looking forward to participate at the two-day conference on promoting the Council of Europe Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property (the Nicosia Convention) on 24-26 October 2019. The Conference is is organized by the Commissioner for Volunteerism and Non-Governmental Organisations of  Cyprus, in co-operation with the MfA of Cyprus, the CoE and the EU. Thank you CoE !

More information - CoE

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that the United States filed a civil lawsuit to resolve potential claims to “Site avec 5 personnages” (the “Painting”), an acrylic work on canvas by renowned 20th century-artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) that was last known to be the personal property of Michel Cohen (“Cohen”), a former art dealer who has been under indictment for wire and mail fraud since 2003. 

Press Release of U.S. Attorney's Office - Southern District of New York

In addition to the conflict’s huge human cost, Yemen’s rich cultural heritage has been ravaged, from the Queen of Sheba’s reputed throne room to the mudbrick high-rises of Shibam.
Article by Bethan McKernan in Shibam, Yemen in The Guardian

Article in The Guardian

A treasured artwork owned by a Pittsford man has become the subject of an international legal dispute centered on allegations that Nazis stole the work from its rightful owners during World War II. Christie's, the auction house that agreed in 2016 to sell the portrait, will not allow the sale to go forward until the ownership issue is decided.

Read the article here

“The situation, as presented in photographs published in the press today, is very frustrating for the British Museum, and extremely offensive to the exhibits themselves, especially when these exhibits are no other than the Parthenon Sculptures”, Mendoni declared.

Greek Reporter

Greece is preparing a formal request to borrow the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum for the 2021 celebrations of Greece’s 200-year independence from Turkish rule, Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said Tuesday.

Article by Kathimerini

The Greek Ministry of Culture reiterates its claim of dominion over a bronze sculpture from the 8th century BC, an object the Ministry reasonably believes was illegally exported from Greek territory. The Greek Ministry moved to dismiss the case, but on June 21, 2019, the court denied Greece’s motion, finding that the court had subject matter jurisdiction over the case pursuant to the commercial activity exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

Full Article in the National Herald

An international conference on Law, Culture and Human Rights in Asia and the Middle East is to be held on Feb. 14, 2020 at the British Institute of International & Comparative Law, Russell Square, London. The conference will focus on the topic of Culture and Cultural Heritage in Asia and the Middle East, addressing culture and cultural heritage in times of peace and armed conflicts in the region.

More information here

With extensive experience under her belt, Mendoni, an archaeologist, has presided over the Central Archaeological Committee (ΚΑΣ), worked on dozens of excavations including the Amphipolis site, served as culture ministry secretary general, and supervised Olympic works, among others, in her long-standing career in culture.

Article on "gtp Headlines"

Thanks to a 1-million-dollar TED prize, ordinary people can now use high-level satellite imagery to identify potential sites for exploration, without giving the coordinates over to looters. It is all done online, suitable for children through to adults.

ABC news

On June 20, Greece and the world museum community celebrated the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Amidst all the euphoria, we should not forget the main reason why the museum was built – namely, to counter the British argument that the Greeks did not have a suitable museum for the Parthenon Sculptures even if they were ever returned to Athens.

Article in the Kathimerini

UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright has vowed to protect objects on loan from abroad in temporary exhibitions in UK museums from seizure by the UK courts. Works of art on display in a museum or gallery where the museum has published information about the objects on loan is now covered. This does, however, raise questions about restituted works of art from the Nazi Era.

Article in Artlyst

In April 2019, research began at the University of Bonn on international practice in the restitution of artworks stolen under the Nazi regime. The project aims to provide a comprehensive, comparative analysis of international practice in the restitution of Nazi-looted art. It aims to establish a generalized set of rules on how decisions are made based on considerations of fairness and justice.

More (Engslich text follows the German)

Four institutions are organizing this year’s course on First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis. The course will take place in Rome from Nοvember 11^th to December 5^th. Deadline to apply: 31. May 2019

More: iccrom 

The European Council yesterday adopted new rules to clamp down on the illicit trafficking in cultural goods, including a requirement for import licences on artefacts more than 250 years old.

The Art Newspaper

The 416th Session of the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) was on the Future of Cultural Heritage and the Hellenic Society for Law and Archaeology was there. Thanks to the Fulbright Foundation in Greece, the co-founder of the HSLA Ira Kaliampetsos took part at this extraordinary session as a Fulbright Fellow. Great insides, new ideas, new partnerships.

More on this Session of the SGS

A valuable Babylonian cuneiform stone was handed back to Iraq by the British government on Tuesday, after an attempt to smuggle it into the country was foiled at Heathrow airport. Dating from the second millennium BC, the antiquity is worthy of the world’s greatest museums and valued at hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Source: The National

Didier Claes, who was consulted for the restitution report commissioned by French president Emmanuel Macron, says it has invigorated the market for African art.

Article: The Art Newspaper

The famous Benin bronzes are going home—at least some of them, some of the time. An article by Benjamin Sutton

Article: artsy.net

In the framework of the UNESCO-EU partnership, UNESCO has developed two free distinct on-line training courses  on fighting the illicit trafficking of cultural property: one for European Art Market Stakeholders, Academia, Experts and Researchers and one for European Judiciary, Customs and Law Enforcement Officials.

Details: UNESCO

Less than two years after an acquisition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it had handed over a first-century BC gilded coffin to the Manhattan district attorney for return to the Egyptian government after discovering that it had been looted in 2011.

Article: The Art Newspaper

An eight-member panel including Bénédicte Savoy will assess grant applications

Article: The Art Newspaper

Members of the European Parliament are stepping up their fight against alleged money laundering and tax evasion through the use of freeports—high-security warehouses which hold art and other valuable assets, such as cars, wine and jewellery, tax free.

Article: The Art Newspaper

The director of the British Museum has appeared to rule out returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece after its government demanded Britain open negotiations over their return last year. 

Article  plus video:Independent

The 15-strong Cultural Property Protection Unit will be tasked with retrieving works stolen by terrorists, investigations into looting, the protection of ancient objects and reporting on sites of interest to the British military.

Source: Forces Network

Τhe first comprehensive account of the devastation wrought on the World Heritage site of the Ancient City of Aleppo during years of armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has been published by UNESCO and UNITAR.

Text and source: UNESCO

Full Article: The Washington Post

"The rulings highlight the growing scrutiny courts are paying to how art buyers conduct themselves during a transaction, and suggest that due diligence is more important than ever—especially at the top end of the market."

Full Article: Artsy net

The Guardian states its view on the return of cultural objects. 

The Guardian: on the restitution of cultural property

Benjamin Sutton wrote an interesting article on “artsy.net” on the 7 biggest us lawsuits in art law for the year 2018.

Link: www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-7-art-lawsuits-2018-art-market

Sotheby’s is taking Greece’s ministry of culture to court over the ownership of an ancient Greek bronze horse, in a highly unusual legal attempt by the auction house “to clarify the rights of legitimate owners” amid a surge in claims by countries of origin.

Full Article