This is a brief excerpt from the document you requested from IFAR’s Art Law & Cultural Property Database.
Case Summary
Joram Deutsch v. Metropolitan Museum of Art
Deutsch v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, No. 0100902/2004, slip op. 55 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. July 21, 2004).
Précis
An El Greco, allegedly looted by Nazis from a Budapest collection, was returned to Crete, following an unsuccessful attempt to seize the painting from a Metropolitan Museum exhibition, in order to investigate its
provenance
The history of the ownership of an object or work of art; sometimes also used to describe the place of origin, or the find-spot, of an archaeological object or other antiquity (more correctly, “provenience”).
provenance. This case is an example of the use of the Federal Immunity from Seizure Act to prevent the seizure of a work of cultural importance during an exhibition of national interest. (
see also U.S. v. Portrait of Wally, about an Egon Schiele painting)
Associated Statutes and/or Legislation
Click here to subscribe to IFAR's Art Law & Cultural Property Database to access this and other documents about U.S. and international legislation and case law concerning the acquisition, authenticity, export, ownership, and copyright of art objects.
