Tag: second circuit

Negativ Decision of Second Instance

Bakalar BildMit dieser Entscheidung wird David Bakalar das alleinige Besitzrecht auf Schieles Seated Woman with Bent Left Leg (Torso), Sitzende mit angezogenem linken Bein (Torso) von der zweiten Instanz zuerkannt. Begründet wird diese Entscheidung mit einer spezifischen Form der Verjährung im New Yorker Recht, nämlich dem schuldhaften Mangel an Bemühungen der Vorfahren der Erben von Fritz Grünbaum das Bild bereits zu einem früheren Zeitpunkt von David Bakalar zu fordern. Dies obwohl es den Erben und deren Vorfahren der Aufenthaltsort des Bildes völlig unbekannt war. Der erstinstanzliche Richter Judge William H. Pauley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Pauley_III  meinte bereits in einem frühen Verfahrensstand, dass für den Fall die Erben von Fritz Grünbaum  das Eigentum des Bildes wieder erlangen würden die Ureinwohner von Amerika auch erfolgreich Long Island fordern könnten.….

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With this decision, David Bakalar received sole ownership rights to Schiele Seated Woman with Bent Left Leg (Torso), seated with left leg tightened (torso) is by the second instance. This decision is justified by a specific form of the statute of limitations in New York law (called laches), namely the culpable lack of efforts by the ancestors of the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum to claim the work of art  at an earlier time, although the whereabouts of the Gouache was completely unknown.

download2012 10 11 Summary Order-negative Schlussentscheidung (english only)

 

 

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2010 09 02 Second Circuit Rules Drawing Case involving Fritz Grünbaum

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today in a case involving the Estate of Fritz Grunbaum.

Zweitinstanzliche Entscheidung Bakalar vs. Vavra (deutsch)

The Second Circuit concluded:

Grunbaum was arrested while attempting to flee from the Nazis. After his arrest, he never again had physical possession of any of his artwork, including the Drawing. The power of attorney, which he was forced to execute while in the Dachau concentration camp, divested him of his legal control over the Drawing. Such an involuntary divestiture of possession and legal control rendered any subsequent transfer void.

Fritz Grunbaum’s art collection made headlines when D.A. Robert Morgenthau seized Egon Schiele’s Dead City from the MoMA in New York City.   At the same time, Morgenthau seized Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally, which was also stolen.   Portrait of Wally was returned by Austria this summer.

The Grunbaum heirs are waiting on Austria to make a decision on whether or not to return Dead City and the other artworks stolen from Fritz Grunbaum that are now in the Albertina and Leopold Museums.   Austria has promised to issue a report soon, and then The Austrian Commission for Provenance Research is expected to rule.