Sponsored by the FAME Center, the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights and the Art Law Society

 

In their presentation, From Murder To Museums: Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler and the Hunt For Nazi Looted Art in America, Raymond J. Dowd, Partner - Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP - NYC, and Samuel A. Blaustein, Partner - Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP - NYC, recount how they seized two stolen Schieles after they were spotted at the Salon+Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory in November 2015, leading to international headlines upon their restitution to their clients. The Schieles are now at Christie's with an appellate court blocking the sale. 

 

The presentation traces Abraham Lincoln's idea of taking the profit out of war through the Lieber Code Executive Order 100 of April 1863, to the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, to the Nuremberg Trials, to show that returning the stolen property to Holocaust victims was an American idea.  

 

The attorneys discuss how 1. Confiscatory US tax laws, 2. A fair market value deduction for artworks donated to museums, and 3. An unwillingness of museums to look gift horses in the mouth led to the current situation of US museums having to deal with large inventories of unprovenanced works that left Europe after 1933, but were created prior to 1946.

 

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