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The Fate of the Koenigs Collection: Public and Private International Law Aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2007

Andrea Gattini
Affiliation:
University of Padova. I am grateful to Josephine Leistra, conservator at the Netherlands Office for Fine Arts in The Hague, for her kind assistance in providing information concerning the present state of the case. I wish to dedicate this article to Duncan Bull, co-editor of The Burlington Magazine, who first gave me the idea to write it.

Summary

The Koenigs Collection of Old Master drawings was transferred during the course of World War II from private ownership to the German government. Most of the collection recently appeared in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The author examines the validity of these transfers and the proper ownership of the collection today from both a public and private international law perspective. The dispute as to ownership between Russia and the Netherlands and the role of the German government is a difficult one to resolve, particularly in light of current claims for war reparations and recent developments in international law concerning the transfer of cultural property.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 1997

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