March 2015
Cultural Property – Interpol In response to the recent devastating attacks by ISIS on cultural heritage sites across Iraq, Interpol organized a three-day symposium in Lyon, France, to discuss the destruction of and illicit sale of stolen works. The organization is studying ways to protect locations and objects of historical value from such attacks moving forward, and has already developed a number of tools to assist both the police as well as public and private institutions, in the process of detecting and identifying stolen art.
Cultural Property Under Attack by the Islamic State ISIS has recently directed much of its ruinous activity towards cultural heritage targets in Iraq. The terrorist group is responsible for ransacking Mosul’s Central Library and burning about 100,000 books and manuscripts, in addition to destroying statues and other works with sledgehammers and power tools, before moving on to destroy ruins at the ancient city of Hatra. The destruction is said to extend to museums, libraries and universities across Mosul and other areas. Several governmental bodies and organizations have taken steps to address these cultural cleansing acts including the recent announcement by the US that efforts would be made to spare cultural heritage sites in the fight against ISIS, and the UN Security Council’s resolution to curb traffic of illicit antiquities from the region to prevent ISIS from profiting off the sale of stolen art works.
Authenticity U.S. District Judge Denise Cote dismissed a suit against The Keith Haring Foundation (“Foundation”), in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, alleging that the Foundation rejected authenticity of about 80 art works and subsequently refused to review additional evidence in favor of authenticity. Plaintiffs also alleged that the Foundation refused to authenticate the works in part because it wanted to keep the number of authenticated Haring works low in order to increase the value of those pieces in its own possession. The dismissed claims include antitrust violations, false advertising, and separate claims made under New York state law. Details.
