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Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation (U.S. Sup. Ct.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2022

Emily Behzadi
Emily Behzadi*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Law at California Western School of Law, United States. Chair-Elect of AALS Art Law Section, Chair of the Cultural Heritage Interest Group of the American Society of International Law and Vice-Chair of the International Division of the ABA Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries.
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Extract

During the winters of 1897 and 1898, from the window of his Parisian hotel, Camille Pisarro painted one of his first urban scenes, Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain (the Painting). The Painting marks a significant deviation from Pissarro's prior works, which primarily consisted of au plein air country landscapes. In addition to the Painting's art historical significance, it has now become one of Pissarro's most infamous paintings. Currently sitting in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (TBC) in Madrid, this artwork has been the subject of a decades-long court battle over its ownership. After the Nazis assumed control of Germany, the original owner forcibly surrendered the Painting in order to obtain exit visas for her family. Decades later, the heirs of the original owners attempted to recover the Painting under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). After this decades-long litigation, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a procedural issue: what choice-of-law rule a court should apply in an FSIA case raising state claims.

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 100 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Society of International Law

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References

ENDNOTES

1 Paul Cassirer, Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/cassirer-paul.

2 Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, 824 F. App'x 452 (9th Cir. 2020), petition for cert, filed, (U.S. May 11, 2021) (No. 20-1566) at 4.

3 Id. at 5.

4 Id.

5 United States: Military Government, United States Area of Control, Germany; Law No. 59; Restitution of Identifiable Property.

6 Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Cassirer (No. 20-1566) at 9.

7 Id.

8 Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Found., 142 S. Ct. 1502, 1506 (2022).

9 Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Cassirer (No. 20-1566) at 10.

10 Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain, 461 F. Supp. 2d 1157 (CD Cal. 2006).

11 28 U.S.C §§1604–1607.

12 Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain, 616 F.3d 1019 (9th Cir. 2010).

13 Id.

14 Cassirer, 142 S. Ct. at 1508.

15 Id.

16 Id.

17 313 U.S. 487 (1941).

18 Id. at 496.

19 Texas Industries, Inc. v. Radcliff Materials, Inc., 451 U.S. 630, 640 (1981).

20 Cassirer, 142 S. Ct. at 1510.

21 See F.R.G. v. Philipp, 141 S. Ct. 703 (2021).

22 See Catherine Hickley, What Constitutes Art Sales Under Duress? A Dispute Reignites the Question, The New York times (Aug. 17, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/arts/design/duress-bellotto-painting.html.