Long-running Nazi art case returns to DC Circuit courthousenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from courthousenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This cupola reliquary is part of the Guelph Treasure, displayed at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Applied Arts) in Berlin Photo: AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz
In a unanimous opinion that could make it harder for the heirs of Jewish victims to reclaim art through the US justice system, the Supreme Court has sided with Germany in the high-profile Guelph Treasure claim, rejecting the argument that the country can be sued in the US for taking art from its own citizens as part of the Holocaust. The disputed collection at the centre of the case, the medieval Guelph Treasure estimated to be worth at least €200m, will remain for now in Berlin at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Applied Arts Museum) in Berlin, while the case returns to a lower court.
Summary: Supreme Court Oral Argument in Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp
Readers interested in learning about another Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act case currently before the Supreme Court, Hungary v. Simon, can read Jeremy Gordon s summary of oral argument in that case here.
Does the “expropriation exception” of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) afford U.S. courts jurisdiction to resolve claims brought by German citizens against the German government? The extent of the protections the FSIA affords sovereign states was in question on Dec. 7, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp.
The case itself presents two separate but intertwined issues. First, does 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(3) of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, commonly referred to as the “expropriation exception,” afford U.S. courts jurisdiction over claims related to the actions of a foreign government against its citizens within the foreign governme