Art Restitution Bill

Fellow appraiser Louise Allrich sent me this post on the U.S. Congress passing a historic art restitution bill.  Below is from a post at Art Law and More, from Boodle Hatfield.

Art Law and More reports

US GOVERNMENT VOTES IN FAVOUR OF ART RESTITUTION LAW

December 13, 2016
In a rare moment of solidarity in US politics a historic art restitution bill was passed by Congress on Friday (9 December).

Proposed in April this year, the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act (HEAR) facilitates the restitution process by which Nazi-looted art is returned to its rightful pre-war owners. The bill was backed by Republican senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn together with Democrat Senators Charles Schumer and Richard Blumenthal.

The HEAR Act offers claimants a six year window beginning with the date a stolen artwork is discovered in which to bring an action for its return and prove their right to it. Previously, families of victims of Nazi-era art theft were subject to state-by-state statutes of limitations barring them from pursuing a claim sometimes after as little as three years.

The Act also provides claimants with a much more concrete means of obtaining justice than the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. This treaty has been signed by 44 countries but it lacks the force of law.

There had been fears that the passage of the HEAR bill into law might be thwarted by states concerned with protecting their individual right to impose their own statutes of limitations. Nonetheless, in a surprise show of bipartisanship both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted unanimously in favour of the bill.

The passage of the HEAR bill was boosted by a celebrity endorsement from actress Helen Mirren, star of art restitution film ‘Woman in Gold’. She sparked a media frenzy when she addressed a Senate hearing on the proposed law in June this year. “The very act of Nazi expropriation was not only unjust but it was inhumane,” Mirren told two Senate judiciary subcommittees. “We are incapable of changing the past, but fortunately we have the ability to make change today”.

Source: Art Law and More