To Return or not to Return? Are Museums Really at Crossroads on Nazi-era Claims?

March 1, 2009

It is true that some museums chose to use technical defenses to avoid returning art works in their holdings that were stolen by the Nazis before and during World War II. A recently published law journal article comes to the defense of the museums in their efforts to hold on to the works that would not have adorned their walls or occupied their storage areas but for arienazation of art galleries, forced sales and other despicable acts committed against collectors and dealers.

Cleveland Museum

Israel Museum

Sources: The Huffington Post; Simon J. Frankel and Ethan Forrest, Museum’s Initiation of Declaratory Judgment Actions and Assertion of Statements of Limitations in Response to Nazi-Era Art Restitution Claims — A Defense, XXIII DePaul J. Art, Tech. & IP Law Law 279 (2013).