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Case Summary

Warin v. Wildenstein

Warin v. Wildenstein & Co., No. 115143/99 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Sept. 4, 2001), aff’d, 293 A.D.2d 348 (N.Y. App. Div. April 18, 2002), vacated, 297 A.D.2d 214 (N.Y. App. Div. Aug. 8, 2002).

See also: Warin v. Wildenstein & Co., 824 N.Y.S.2d 759 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2006) (dismissing complaint with prejudice), time to perfect appeal extended, M-2069,2007 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6118 (N.Y. App Div. May 15, 2007), 45 A.D. 3d 459, 846 N.Y.S. 2d 153 (N.Y. App. Div. 1st Dep't., Nov. 27, 2007).

Précis
This World War II Nazi-looted art case is unusual in that it concerned two theft victims who claimed the same art objects.  The French government restituted the objects – seven illuminated manuscripts from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries – by 1952 to French collector and art dealer Georges Wildenstein.  More than forty years later, Francis Warin, an heir of Alfonse Kann, whose major art collection also had been looted by the Nazis, acquired information that led him to believe that the manuscripts had actually belonged to Kann and had been mistakenly awarded to Wildenstein. . . .






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