Tag Archives: Gurlitt

Gurlitt trove eludes restitution efforts owing to unresolved provenance questions

Posted on: July 1, 2020 by Stephanie Drawdy

The full story of the billion-dollar art collection gathered by Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt during World War II may never be told. After years spent trying to determine the collection’s history, the prior owners of a large majority of those works remain unknown. This is a story we have followed with interest throughout its […]

Progress on the Washington Principles: a glass half full after 20 years?

Posted on: December 5, 2018 by Emily Gould

The adoption of the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art by 44 nations in 1998 marked a deeply significant moment in the development of cultural policy in the 20th and 21st centuries. Whilst the extent of looting perpetrated by the Nazis during the 1933-45 period was fairly well understood at that stage, few would have […]

Access to Art: the good news and the not so good…

Posted on: April 7, 2016 by Emily Gould

Significant developments on three of the stories we’ve been watching closely of late appeared in the news this week: Firstly, that the deferral on an export licence for the Sekhemka Statue has now been lifted, so it will almost certainly be leaving these shores before too long. Secondly, that pieces from the Gurlitt art hoard […]

The Gurlitt case enters 2016

Posted on: January 8, 2016 by Alexander Herman

Since our last report on the Gurlitt case, there have been several developments. What better way, then, to begin the new year with a post on a story that has been unfolding since 2013? Plus ça change… The German-Bavarian appointed Task Force has now been folded into the German Lost Art Foundation, which will continue administering the remaining […]

Update and thoughts on Gurlitt

Posted on: August 6, 2015 by Alexander Herman

It has been some time since we discussed the Gurlitt affair in these pages. And what has happened since? Well, the challenge to Gurlitt’s will by his cousin Uta Werner has continued on. It is now before the Higher Regional Court in Munich (Oberlandesgericht München) and just last month the Court requested a psychological opinion concerning Gurlitt’s competence […]

DipIPC in less than a week, and other June events

Posted on: June 3, 2015 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

The Diploma in Intellectual Property and Collections (DipIPC) course, aimed at art/museum professionals and legal practitioners, will begin in London in one week. This three day course (10-12 June) will cover art, copyright, moral rights, the new UK legislation, orphan works, licensing and international dealings with art. For more information, click here. And there will be two […]

Gurlitt’s Cousin Appeals Judgment of Probate Court

Posted on: April 30, 2015 by Nina M. Neuhaus

Uta Werner, the cousin of late Cornelius Gurlitt, has decided to appeal against the judgment of the Probate Court in Munich (Amtsgericht München). In its judgment, the Probate Court as Court of First Instance has granted the Museum of Fine Arts Bern’s application for a certificate of inheritance and, at the same time, rejected a […]

Art law on film: Woman in Gold

Posted on: April 16, 2015 by Alexander Herman

‘What do you know about art restitution?’ ‘Not a thing.’ The question comes from Maria Altmann, played by Helen Mirren, and the answer is from her lawyer, Randol Schoenberg, played by Ryan Reynolds, in Woman in Gold, the film dramatising Altmann’s quest for the return of five Gustav Klimt paintings that had been taken from her family during the […]

Probate Court Confirms Validity of Gurlitt’s Will

Posted on: March 27, 2015 by Nina M. Neuhaus

In its decision of 23 March 2015, the Probate Court in Munich (Nachlassgericht München) granted the Museum of Fine Arts Bern’s application for a certificate of inheritance and, at the same time, rejected a similar application of Cornelius Gurlitt’s cousin, Ms Uta Werner. The Probate Court did not accept Ms Werner’s claim that Mr Gurlitt was […]

Causa Gurlitt: Museum of Fine Arts Bern Applies for Certificate of Inheritance

Posted on: March 18, 2015 by Nina M. Neuhaus

New developments in causa Gurlitt: The Museum of Fine Arts Bern applied for a certificate of inheritance with the Probate Court in Munich. With this application, the Museum seeks confirmation from the Court that it is the sole legal heir of Cornelius Gurlitt – as it was stated in his will of 9th January 2014. [See […]