1 JANUARY 2006

In Italy the droit de suite, introduced by the European Union (EU) Directive of 2001/84/EEC, entered into force. Legge 18 (118) (February 2006); Gazzetta ufficiale 71 (25 March 2006); Il Giornale dell'Arte, January 2006, p. 1, April 2005, p. 36. Also Germany amended the German copyright act accordingly. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 27 January 2006, p. 38, 28 January 2006, p. 45, as well as Austria. Handig, wirtschaftsrechtliche blätter 2006, p. 397, and in France, Le Journal des Arts 29 (April–12 May 2006): 25.

1 JANUARY 2006

Article L 654-27-1 is inserted into the French Rural Code (Code rural), which entered into force and provides: “The foie gras belongs to the cultural and gastronomical inheritance protected in France. One understands by foie gras the liver of a duck or a goose especially fattened by cramming.”

1 JANUARY 2006

The Netherlands and other European countries started the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt (1606–1669) with 24 exhibitions in the Netherlands and many others in other European countries.

1 JANUARY 2006

Austria established the National Agency for the Immaterial Cultural Heritage to inform about the UNESCO Convention of October 2003 and to coordinate national and international activities. UNSECO heute 1 (2007): 69.

10 JANUARY 2006

A figure of the statue of Lynn Chadwick (born 1914) is missing from the campus of Roehampton University near London. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 1 February 2006, p. 25; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26 January 2006, p. 39; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 37. A month earlier, Henry Moore's Reclining Figure had been stolen at the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green, Hertfordshire, England.

10 JANUARY 2006

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit gave a judgment in the case Malewicz v. City of Amsterdam, 2006 U.S.App. LEXIS 615. The decision of the District Court is published in 362 F.Supp. 2d 298 (D.D.C. 2005).

11 JANUARY 2006

The University of Heidelberg returned to Greece a small fragment of the Parthenon Marbles. The fragment (a heel of figure number 28 in block viii of the north frieze) was part of the university antiquities collection since 1871 and my have been acquired as a souvenir by a German visitor in Athens. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, February 2006, p. 9 and November 2006, p. 88; 38 UniSpiegel der Universität Heidelberg, February/March 2006, p. 3; Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, 28–29 January 2006, p. 49; museums journal, October 2006, p. 9.

11 JANUARY 2006

The parliament of Mexico-City decided to ask Austria to return the so-called Feather Crown of Montezuma and served this decision on the Austrian government in Vienna. The Feather Crown is exhibited in the Austrian Völkerkundemuseum in Vienna. There is no evidence that this crown was ever used by Montezuma who was the emperor of the Aztec Empire in Central America from 1466–1520. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 January 2006, p. 9; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 12 January 2006, p. 27.

12 JANUARY 2006

The European Court of Justice decided in the case C-361/04 that the name “Picaro” can clearly be distinguished from the name “Picasso.” Daimler Chrysler AG wanted to call a car “Picaro” and the heirs of the artist Pablo Picasso opposed because, as they thought, “Picaro” can easily be mixed up with “Picasso.” sic 2006, p. 600.

13 JANUARY 2006

Hearing in the Marion True trial in Rome. The Paris-based U.S. dealer Robert E. Hecht, another defendant, was heard. The Art Newspaper, February 2006, p. 9. Tutta la storia del processo contro Marion True, Il Giornale dell'Arte, July/August 2006, p. 28.

13 JANUARY 2006

A work of the Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping was loaned to an art exhibition at the Walker Center in Minneapolis. After a dispute over restoration costs, Simon de Pury of the auction house Phillips de Pury & Company withdrew the work and sold it at auction. The lending institution, which had already agreed, with the consent of the owner, to pass the work to another exhibition in Vancouver, could not do anything but to return the work to the owner. The Art Newspaper, February 2007, p. 4.

14 JANUARY 2006

Five hundred years ago the sculpture Laokoon was discovered by Felice de Fredis in a vineyard of the Colle Oppio in Rome; excavated; and, when exhibited in the Belvedere of the Vatican, became the nucleus of the Vatican Museums. The 500th anniversary of the Vatican Museums is celebrated in several presentations, conferences, and finally at the end of the year with the exhibition “Laocoonte. Alle origini dei Musei Vativani.” Süddeutsche Zeitung, 17–18 February 2007, p. 17; Francesco Buranelli, Director of the Vatican Museums, will increase efforts to obtain modern and contemporary art. ARTnews, February 2007, p. 78.

15 JANUARY 2006

The arbitration tribunal of the Altmann case decided in favor of Ms. Altmann. The Klimt paintings have to be returned to her and given back. Martha Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, February 2006, p. 4; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 January 2006, p. 33; E. Randol Schoenberg, IFAR Journal Vol. 9, no. 1 (2006): 28–44; Martha Lufkin, Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 351–369.

17 JANUARY 2006

The House of Representatives of Morocco adopted a law on movable art objects and antiquities designed to fight illegal dealing with antiquities. Available at 〈http://www.leidennetwok.net〉.

17 JANUARY 2006

Exhibition in Berlin of the painting Riding Out of the Princess Liegnitz in the Park of Charlottenburg by Franz Krüger (1797–1857). The painting has been taken by a Russian soldier in 1946 and finally discovered in Kyrgyzstan. In 2005 the painting was given back to Germany. Press release of the Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten, 17 January 2006.

19 JANUARY 2006

The bilateral agreement between the United States and Italy on the restitution of illegally exported cultural objects, expiring on January 23, 2006, was extended for an additional 5 years. Patty Gerstenblith and Bonnie Czegledi, The International Lawyer 40 (2006): 442; The Art Newspaper, February 2006, p. 9; American Journal of International Law 100 (2006): 460.

19 JANUARY 2006

The museums in Madrid are missing a big sculpture of Richard Serra. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 January 2006, p. 31.

20 JANUARY 2006

A list of paintings which the Louvre of Paris is going to lend to Museums in Atlanta, Georgia, and Lens is published. Le Journal des Arts, 3–16 February 2006, p. 3.

20 JANUARY 2006

China and Italy entered into a bilateral agreement to stem the trade in illegally obtained art and antiquities between the two countries. Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, 41 The International Lawyer 100 (2007): 615.

21 JANUARY 2006

Cellini's Saliera, stolen on 11 May 2003, is back in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum. The thief himself located the hiding place. The Art Newspaper, February 2006, p. 5; Le Journal des Arts, 31 March–13 April 2006, p. 6; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 25 January 2006, p. 7; 26 January 2006, p. 41.

23 JANUARY 2006

William S. Rubin, chief curator and later director of the painting and sculpture collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York passed away. Il Giornale dell'Arte, March 2006, p. 14.

25 JANUARY 2006

Barbara G. Fleischman gave up her position as a member of the administrative council of the Getty Trust. Her collection, which she donated in 1996 to the Getty Trust, is also part of the scandal arisen recently with respect to the acquisition policies of the Getty Trust. Le Journal des Arts, 3–16 February 2006, p. 4.

26 JANUARY 2006

The painting Country House at River by Jan van der Heyden 1637–1712) was sold at the Old Masters auction of Sotheby's in New York for $1.5 million. In 2005 the painting was restituted by the Frankfurt Städel Museum to the heirs of the former owner Paul Stern. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 28 June 2006, p. 48.

28 JANUARY 2006

Reopening of the Getty Villa in Malibu. The $275-million project has been in the works for a decade. Jason Edward Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, January 2006, p. 13; ARTnews, January 2006, p. 41; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 28–29 January 2006, p. 13.

28 JANUARY 2006

Opening of the Berlin exhibition “Im Schneckenhaus” (In the Snail-Shell) on the actress Tilla Durieux (1880–1971) and her exile in Zagreb, Croatia. The heir of Ms. Durieux (wife of the art dealer Paul Cassirer) demands from the City Museum of Zagreb the restitution of valuable paintings which Tilla Durieux had to leave in Croatia and which she had to give to the Museum in exchange for the export of the rest of her collection. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 28–29 January 2006, p. 17.

30 JANUARY 2006

The London Metropolitan Police seized at the Victoria & Albert Museum the privately owned and as loan exhibited medieval casket discovered to be the Thomas Becket reliquary looted in World War II in Poland from the Czartoryski family. The Czartoryski family will try to get the casket back from the London-based Drey family who now owns the casket. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 20.

JANUARY 2006

The London art dealer Anne Faggionato is preparing a law suit in the United States against the billionaire Randy Lerner for having bought but not paid the painting Haystacks by Claude Monet. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 49.

JANUARY 2006

The Russian-born billionaire Tamir Sapir bought a mansion in Manhattan for $40 million and will show in this building his ivories. The Art Newspaper, February 2006, p. 39.

JANUARY 2006

Israel enacted a law which created the Company to Locate and Return Assets to Holocaust Survivors. This company shall collect all assets of unknown owners and sell them for the benefit of holocaust survivors. The Art Newspaper, April 2007, p. 18.

JANUARY 2006

The United States started paying compensation for the losses suffered at the end of World War II by the disappearance of valuables from the so-called Hungarian Gold Train. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 2 February 2006, p. 2; American Journal of International Law 100 (2006): 220–222.

JANUARY 2006

Seven U.S. institutions in possession of Iranian artifacts (University of Chicago, Harvard University, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art) have been served with lawsuits arising from a 1997 suicide bombing at a pedestrian mall in Jerusalem. The plaintiffs had filed suits under the 1991 federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows American victims of overseas terrorist attacks to sue for damages in U.S. courts and obtained default judgments of $71.5 million against the Iranian government allegedly responsible for the terrorist attack of 1997. The judgment creditors demand that the institutions turn over to them the artifacts and art objects in their collection that the plaintiffs claim “may be the property of Iran.” Suits have been filed in federal courts in Michigan, Illinois and Massachusetts and in state court in Pennsylvania. ARTnews, February 2006, p. 56.

JANUARY 2006

Opening of the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome after a long period of restoration. The collection is rearranged and may be part of the oldest museum which was opened to the public in 1471. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 2 August 2006, p. 28.

JANUARY 2006

The post-Dada artist Pierre Pinoncelli damaged the Fountain d'urinoir of Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) in the Centre Pompidou of Paris. In February 2007, he was sentenced to suspended 3 months in prison. Le Journal des Arts, 16 February–1 March 2007, p. 3.

JANUARY 2006

In the Kings Valley of Egypt a chamber with five mummies and with sarcophagi has been discovered, The site is called KV 63. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 16 February 2006, p. 40.

JANUARY 2006

Return of the painting Card Players and Smokers by Frans Hals (1581/85–1666), until 1940 being part of the Dutch Goudstikker collection, to the Goudstikker heirs by the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf. ARTnews, February 2006, p. 74.

JANUARY 2006

The North America section of the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (Incca) was launched. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 28.

JANUARY 2006

The Museum of Modern Art in New York engaged former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to conduct an independent review of claims by the estate of the German artist George Grosz (1893–1959) for the paintings Bildnis Max Herrmann-Neisse (1927) and Maler und Modell (1928). Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) acquired these paintings in 1952 and 1954. They are listed on MoMA's Internet site under its provenance research project, which is associated with the American Association of Museums' Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal (〈www.nepip.org〉). ARTnewsletter XXXI (31 January 2006): 5.

JANUARY 2006

Peru asks Yale University to return cultural property taken out of the country by the discoverer of Machu Picchu Hiram Bingham (1875–1956), preserved in the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale and exhibited last year in a travelling exhibition shown in half a dozen American cities, the New York Times, 1 February 2006; ARTnews, May 2006, p. 86.

2 FEBRUARY 2006

The Austrian government gave up the efforts to retain the Klimt paintings adjudicated on 15 January 2006 to Ms. Altmann in Austria. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3 February 2006, p. 33.

2 FEBRUARY 2006

The Oberlandesgericht Stuttgart (Court of Appeals) had to decide whether the painting Maria im Gebet (Mary Praying) by Carlo Dolci (1616–1686) stolen in 1945 from the State Art Collection of Saxony in Dresden and in 2003 sold to a Munich art dealer should be returned to the Dresden Art Collection. The court denied this question because of lapse of the 30 years period of the statute of limitations. But title is still with the Dresden Art Collection. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 February 2006, p. 42.

6 FEBRUARY 2006

The painting Salomonische Weisheit by Ludwig Knaus (1829–1910) lost during World War II and offered for sale with Sotheby's of London in 2005, was returned to the National Gallery of Berlin against reasonable compensation of the present holder. Kind information by Solicitor Michael H. Carl of London; Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz XLII (2006): 278 et seq.; Museums Journal, April–June 2007, p. 22.

6 FEBRUARY 2006

Closing of the exhibition “Caravaggio and Europe” in the Palazzo Reale in Milan. This exhibition caused serious problems because at least two museums in Milan (Brera) and Syracuse (Museo Bellomo) declined to lend Caravaggio paintings promised to be lent some time ago. The Art Newspaper, December 2005, p. 3; Le Journal des Arts, 6–19 January 2006, p. 6.

6 FEBRUARY 2006

The Dutch State Secretary of Culture decided to return the Goudstikker collection of 202 paintings to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940). The Goudstikker collection was sold to Hermann Göring in 1940 for 2 million guilders and after World War II many paintings were returned to the Netherlands. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 February 2006, p. 38; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 10 February 2006, p. 26; A.A. van Velten, Juridische verwikkelingen rond de voomalige collectie Goudstikker, Weekblad voor Privaatrecht, Notariaat en Registratie 2006, 233 et seq., 257 et seq. ARTnews, May 2007, p. 84.

7 FEBRUARY 2006

The Norwegian collector Fred Olsen sold part of his collection of Munch paintings with Sotheby's in London. Some of these paintings were cheaply bought during the Nazi-period as works of degenerate art deaccessioned from public museums in Germany. art, March 2006, p. 115; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 January 2006, p. 47.

10 FEBRUARY 2006

Three paintings of Heinrich Bürkel (1802–1869) stolen during World War II and discovered on 25 October 2005 in the United States were returned to the German city of Pirmasens. Heike Wittmer, Kunst und Recht 2006, p. 37 and 39; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , 13 February 2006, p. 46.

13 FEBRUARY 2006

The British government passes The Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 (Statutory instrument 2006 No. 346) to implement properly the Directive 2001/84/EEC on the droit de suite. The Regulations entered into force one day later. Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 115; Simon Stokes, Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 109–114.

13 FEBRUARY 2006

The Italian Decreto legislativo n. 118 on the droit de suite is promulgated and is valid for all sales since 1 January 2006. Il Giornale dell'Arte, Supplemento March 2006; Gazzetta ufficiale n. 71 of 25 March 2006.

14–15 FEBRUARY 2006

Auction of photographs at Sotheby's in New York. A rare platinum print The Pond-Moonlight of 1904 by Edward Steichen (1879–1973) was sold for $2.9 million. ARTnewsletter XXXI (28 February 2006): 1; International Herald Tribune, 25–26 February 2006, p. 11.

15 FEBRUARY 2006

The German government published the draft of a statute implementing the UNESCO Convention of 1970 on Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Stephanie Schulz-Hombach and Katrin Schenk, Kunst und Recht 2006, p. 47.

16 FEBRUARY 2006

The Cour d'appel de Paris convicted Jacques Tajan to suspended 15 months in prison and €200,000 fines for having failed to deal with Alberto Giacometti's estate properly. Le Journal des Arts, 3–16 March 2006, p. 21.

16 FEBRUARY 2006

The European Parliament passed an urgent resolution on the destruction of the Armenian cemetery in Giulfa, Azerbaijan by Azerbaijan. Il Giornale dell'Arte, April 2006. p. 55.

20 FEBRUARY 2006

The Italian Statute No. 77 puts the Italian sites listed in the UNESCO “List of the World Heritage” according to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972 under special protection by the Italian State. Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 58 of 10 March 2006.

21 FEBRUARY 2006

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities and the Commission for Cultural and Environmental Assets and Education of the Region of Sicily signed an agreement with respect to antiquities of Italian origin. Inter alia title to the Euphronios Krater in the Metropolitan Museum is transferred to the Italian Republic and is exhibited in the Museum with the legend “Lent by the Republic of Italy.” The American version of the agreement can be found in International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 427; available at 〈http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0602/S00265.htm〉.The Italian version is accessible under 〈http://www.patrimoniosos.it/rsol.php?op=getlaw&id=809〉. Cp also ARTnews, May 2006, p. 59; ARTnewsletter XXXI (31 January 2006): 3, and XXXI (28 March 2006): 5; International Herald Tribune, 21 February 2006, p. 10, and 1 March 2006, p. 26; ARTnews, May 2006, p. 44.

22 FEBRUARY 2006

Bombing of the Golden Mosque of Samarra, Iraq. This is another example for the tremendous losses of the Iraqi cultural heritage. Le Journal des Arts, 14–27 April 2006, p. 32; Lucian Harris, The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 32 and 28; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 23 February 2006, p. 1, and 24 February 2006, p. 25.

24 FEBRUARY 2006

During the Carnival de Rio thieves stole works of Picasso, Monet, Matisse, and Dalì from the Museu de la Chácara do Céu in Rio de Janeiro. Le Journal des Arts, 3–16 March 2006, p. 2; Camilla Belchior and Charmaine Picard, The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 6.

27 FEBRUARY 2006

The Commission of the European Union set up the “High Level Group on Digital Libraries” to advise the Commission on problems of digital libraries in Europe. Il Giornale di Cività, December 2006, p. 6.

28 FEBRUARY 2006

The buyer of a piece of land is allowed to remove a sculpture ordered by the seller for this very piece of land without violation of the artist's copyright. This has been confirmed by a German court of appeals. Schleswig-Holsteinisches Oberlandesgericht, Kunst und Recht 2007, p. 6.

FEBRUARY 2006

The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) released a statement concerning the effect of U.S. art museum purchases on the antiquity trade. Culture without Context 18 (Spring 2006): 23.

FEBRUARY 2006

Arbitration panel awarded $860,000 to the former owners of two failed Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries to be paid by Thomas Kinkade, the “most collected artist” in the United States. The “painter of the light” had persuaded many persons to open galleries and to sell exclusively works of Kinkade. Many of these galleries stuck with unsalable prints and had to close. They sued Kinkade for damages. Martha Lufkin, “Thomas Kinkade faces FBI investigation,” The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 57.

FEBRUARY 2006

The Pacific Islands Museums Association (PIMA), an affiliated organization of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) produced a specialized Code of Ethics for Pacific Islands Museums and Cultural Centres. International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 415.

FEBRUARY 2006

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York sold at Sotheby's 177 casts of sculptures taken and preserved since the nineteenth century. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 19 February 2006, p. 63.

FEBRUARY 2006

U.S. museums met with Italian officials over antiquities illegally exported from Italy to the United States to cooperate with Italy and potential demands for return of art works, ARTnewsletter XXXI (28 March 2006): 4; ARTnews, February 2006, p. 54.

1 MARCH 2006

Precious books of the library of the Hungarian Calvinist College in Sarospatak taken at the end of World War II by the Russian army were given back to Hungary. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 March 2006, p. 37; The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 27; Patricia Kennedy Grimsted and Konstantin Akinsha, Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 215–249; International Herald Tribune, 25–26 February 2006, p. 10.

1 MARCH 2006

In a meeting of the French association of antique sealers a lawyer informed the dealers about the dangers of money laundering in art trade. Le Journal des Arts, 17–30 March 2006, p. 23.

1 MARCH 2006

The famous numismatique collection of Léon François (1904–1992) was sold at the Drouot, Paris. Le Journal des Arts, 17 February–2 March 2006, p. 24.

2 MARCH 2006

The Italian Council of Ministers issues two legislative decrees modifying the “Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio.” Il Giornale dell' Arte, April 2006, Leggi dell'arte, p. 12.

10 MARCH 2006

Michel Garel, chief conservator of the manuscript department of the French Bibliothèque nationale has been sentenced to prison for having stolen a manuscript worth €400,000. Le Journal des Arts, 10–27 April 2006, p. 5.

13 MARCH 2006

Some Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, France, Italy, Lebanon, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey) created the association Herimed for the cooperation with respect to documentation, cataloguing, and conservation of the Mediterranean cultural heritage. Il Giornale dell'Arte, April 2006, p. 18.

15 MARCH 2006

The State of Italy acquired the last part of the Palazzo Altemps in Rome and plans either to extend the archaeological collection into this part or to place there the Museo Geologico. Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2006, p. 14.

15 MARCH 2006

The United States entered into a new Memorandum of Understanding with Columbia that restricts the importation of pre-Columbian archaeological materials dating between 1500 b.c. and 1530 a.d. and Ecclesiastical ethnological materials of the Colonial period (dating between 1530 and 1830 a.d.). Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 615.

16 MARCH 2006

The Samuel Courtauld Trust decided to refer the case of a spoliation claim to the U.K. Spoliation Advisory Panel with respect to watercolors once forming part of the Czech collection of Arthur Feldmann. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 9.

16 MARCH 2006

The annual financial filing of Sotheby's states: “It is not possible to measure with any particular accuracy the entire international art market.” Also Georgina Adam complains that it is hardly perceptible what was paid for an art object and what was given in exchange for a not mentioned piece of art or what has been given in addition because of a guarantee. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 33.

16 MARCH 2006

Two men were arrested in England, suspected of having forged Egyptian antiquities and fooled the British museum, Christie's, the National Art Collections Fund, and the Inland Revenue. The major fake is an Egyptian statue of a female figure. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 4.

21 MARCH 2006

John Sexton, the president of New York University (NYU) announced the donation of $200 million from the Leon Levy Foundation to NYU to fund a new Institute for the study of the Ancient World. As a result of the donation, Randall White, a professor of anthropology at NYU resigned from the university's ancient studies center because Mr. Levy is said to have also collected looted archaeological objects. John Henry Merryman of Stanford University defended the donation and approved it. The Art Newspaper, May 2006. p. 7.

21 MARCH 2006

The English Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiquities Unit announced an initiative ArtBEAT, which will bring experts to work with detectives from the Specialist Crime Directorate's Economic Specialist Crime Unit. Gertrude M. Prescott, Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 201–204.

21 MARCH 2006

The Boston philanthropist David Bakalar started a complaint in New York federal court against Leon Fischer and Milos Vavra. Fischer and Vavra claim to be the heirs of the Austrian singer Felix Grunbaum, who owned watercolors of Egon Schiele (1890–1918) now held by Bakalar, who wants to sell them with Sotheby's for more than $100 million. Available at 〈http://www.bloomberg.com〉 27 July 2006.

23 MARCH 2006

The trustees of the British Museum decided to return two cremation ash bundles to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre: “The trustees came to the view that the cultural and religious importance of the cremation ash bundles to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community outweighed any other public benefit that would have flowed from the retention.” The recent Human Tissue Act lifted restrictions of deaccession of human remains since October 2005. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 20.

23 MARCH 2006

In the proceedings for a preliminary ruling of the European Court of Justice on the compatibility of the French law of art auctions with European law, the advocate general submitted his opinion. Le Journal des Arts, 7 July–7 September 2006, p. 30.

27 MARCH 2006

The National Gallery of Art in Washington acknowledged that portions of the work of two Edouard Vuillard scholars have been published in a museum catalog without the authors' permission. This settles the case Beaulieu v. The United States brought by the authors because of copyright infringement. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 1.

28 MARCH 2006

The Austrian authority for problems of restitution (Rückgabebeirat) discussed whether the painting Sommernacht am Strand or Meereslandschaft mit Mond by Edvard Munch (1863–1944), exhibited in the Österreichische Galerie in Vienna, will be given back to the heirs of Alma Mahler-Werfel (1879–1964), wife of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), Walter Gropius (1883–1969) and Franz Werfel (1890–1945). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2 March 2006, p. 37; The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 9; ARTnews, June 2006, p. 76.

29 MARCH 2006

Peter Watson was heard in the Rome trial against Marion True. Federico Castelli Gattinara, The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 6.

29 MARCH 2006

Greek authorities seized 17 ancient artifacts at the villa of Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the Getty Museum, on the Greek Island of Paros. The artifacts have not been registered as required by Greek law. Martha Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 6; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 6 April 2006, p. 25.

29 MARCH 2006

Sheikh Hassan of Qatar announced in Paris that he has become vice president of a newly established Authority of Museums of Qatar and that the new Museum of Islamic Art will be opened in Doha on 2 September 2007 with the directorship of Sabiha Al-Khemir. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 10.

31 MARCH 2006

Sotheby's in New York withdrew the painting Super-Lights—Picasso by the Chinese artist Yan Lei from its Asian contemporary art sale, apparently because of fears of legal action from the Picasso heirs. The painting appropriates Picasso's Boy with Pipe sold in 2004 for $104.5 million. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 56; Il Giornale dell'Arte, April 2006, p. 73.

31 MARCH 2006

In the Salone del Restauro in Ferrara, Italy, the projects for the restoration and recovery of the mosaics of the Villa del Casale of Piazza Armerina, Sicily, were disclosed officially. Il Giornale dell'Arte, April 2006, p. 6.

MARCH 2006

The United Kingdom's Spoliation Advisory Panel concluded that the painting Portrait of a Young Woman Holding a Flower attributed to Nicolaus Alexander Mair von Landshut (deceased 1520) and now held by the Oxford Ashmolean Museum should not be returned to the heirs of Jakob Goldschmidt (deceased 1955). The painting was part of the assets given as security after the bankruptcy of the Danat Bank in 1931 and sold for fair value in 1936. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 9.

MARCH 2006

Russian President Putin visited the Czech Republic and received the painting Head of a Peasant by Ivan Kramskoi (1837–1887) looted by German soldiers during World War II in Russia. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 16 February 2006, p. 41.

MARCH 2006

Graffiti artist Alan Ket, whose real name is Alain Mariduena, has been criminally charged in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan with various counts including criminal mischief, making graffiti (on subway cars), and possession of graffiti tools. The Art Newspaper, June 2007, p. 9.

MARCH 2006

In the first case to be prosecuted under the U.S. federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in Hawaii, Daniel W. Taylor pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiring to traffic in Native Hawaiian cultural items. Culture without Context 18 (2006): 13.

MARCH 2006

The British artist Damien Hirst had his first exhibition in Latin America with the Galeria Hilario Galguera in Mexico City. The Samsung Museum in Seoul bought Damien Hirst's The Wrath of God (2005), a new version of the artist's shark suspended in formaldehyde, for $4 million. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 39.

MARCH 2006

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation of Madrid asked the federal trial court in Los Angeles to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks restitution of the allegedly Nazi-looted painting Rue St-Honoré, Après-Midi, Effet de Pluie by Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) formerly owned by Lilly Cassirer Neubauer of Berlin. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 9.

MARCH 2006

Thomas Krens, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, met with a Russian businessman in Moscow and discussed with him the possible site for a Guggenheim branch in Moscow. ARTnewsletter XXXI (9 May 2006): 2.

MARCH 2006

A fresco by Cimabue (first recorded 1272–1302) believed to be destroyed in the 1997 earthquake in Assisi, Italy, was reconstructed and reinstalled in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Edek Osser and Emma Beatty, The Art Newspaper, November 2005, p. 32.

MARCH 2006

Sale of a headless ancient statue of Venus with Putto and Dolphin at Sotheby's in New York to Emory University, which later bought the head of the statue discovered by Florent Heintz of the auction house to be in the possession of a collector in Texas. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 June 2006, Kunstmarkt p. 1.

MARCH 2006

Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, claimed that a nineteenth-dynasty mask in the St. Louis Art Museum was stolen from a warehouse in Saqqara in the 1980s. The St. Louis Museum issued a statement on May 11 asking Mr. Hawass to provide documentation to substantiate his claim. Culture without Context 18 (Spring 2006): 11; ARTnews, May 2006, p. 78.

MARCH 2006

The Louvre has loaned 104 Islamic objects dating from the sixth to twentieth centuries for an exhibition at the National Museum in Riyadh until May 5. This follows a donation by the Saudi prince Al-Walid Bin Talal of €17 million for the establishment of a new Islamic wing at the Louvre to open in 2009 at the cost of €56 million. It is reportedly the first time that Saudi Arabia has hosted a public exhibition of objects on loan from a foreign country. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 21.

MARCH 2006

The first audit of the collections of Denmark's National Museum of Art, the Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK), has revealed it is missing as many as 70 works. Press release of the National Museum of Art.

4 APRIL 2006

Hearing in the French CIVS (“Commission pour l'indemnisation des victimes de spoliations,” state organization instituted by the French government on 1999) concerning the losses (allegedly also a precious silver) suffered by the family Helft during the German occupation of Paris. Armelle Malvoisin-Bianco, Le Journal des Arts, 31 March–13 April 2006, p. 3.

4 APRIL 2006

Christie's of London withdrew valuable oak beams from an auction because Spain alleges that they have been stolen from the Great Mosque in Cordoba. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 1.

4 APRIL 2006

Christie's of New York sold at auction the painting Giudecca, La Donna della Salute e San Giorgio by William Turner (1775–1851) for $32 million. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 April 2006, p. 60.

6 APRIL 2006

Bonhams of London sold a curtain described as being made for the Ka'ba in Mecca to Yusuf Bhailok, former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain. Mr. Bhailok refuses to pay the price (£240,000) because an expert from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul held it very unlikely that the curtain ever decorated the Ka'ba. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 7.

7 APRIL 2006

A special commission of the Swiss parliament (Ständerat) submitted to the Swiss government (Bundesrat) its report “Aspekte der Stiftungsaufsicht am Beispiel der Stiftungen von Dr. Gustav Rau” (Aspects of Supervision of Foundations demonstrated on the Example of the Foundations of Dr. Gustav Rau). The foundations of Dr. Rau, an art collector, had some problems in the past with the testaments of Dr. Rau. Bundesblatt, 2006, p. 7707.

12 APRIL 2006

Display of a Turkish stele in the British Museum, which Turkey has claimed since September 2005. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 11.

13 APRIL 2006

Greek police announced their largest ever discovery of illegal antiquities at a villa on the tiny Aegean island of Skhoinousa, south of Naxos. The discovered collection contains 280 items dating to many periods and from around the Mediterranean. The villa belongs to Dimitra Papadimitriou, part of a wealthy shipping family, and allegedly was owned by the London dealer Robin Symes and his business partner, the late Christos Michailidis, Papadimitriou's brother. Culture without Context 18 (2006): 15; The New York Times, 19 April 2006, p. E 5; International Herald Tribune, 19 April 2006, p. 3.

14 APRIL 2006

The Texas-based entrepreneur Semir “Sam” Osmanagic started digging for a pyramid at Visoko Hill near the remains of Bosnia's medieval royal capital. The digging takes place without professional archaeologists but with state approval. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 8.

17 APRIL 2006

Members of the European Parliament from the commission on EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation travelled to Armenia and regretted that western governments have failed to condemn the destruction of a unique medieval cemetery by Azerbaijani soldiers. Lucian Harris, The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 30.

18 APRIL 2006

Germany agreed to allow access to a vast trove of information in Bad Arolsen, Germany, on what happened to more than 17 million people who were executed, forced to labor for the Nazis war machine, or otherwise brutalized during the holocaust. New York Times, 19 April 2006, p. A 11.

20 APRIL 2006

The UNESCO Convention of 17 October 2003 on the Preservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage entered into force. Revue général de droit international public 110 (2006): 698; The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 31; UNESCO heute 1 (2007): 9 et seq.

21 APRIL 2006

Opening of the exhibition “From Spitzweg to Baselitz. Masterpieces of the Collection Würth” in the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. This exhibition is one of the exhibitions of the Collection Würth, the German owner of which will pay for the restoration of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo. Il Giornale dell'Arte, April 2006, p. 29.

23 APRIL 2006

End of the exhibition of the Collection Paul Janssen of pre-Columbian art objects in Geneva. This collection of the Belgian collector has many objects without clear provenance. Nonetheless, Belgian museums try to keep the collection in Belgium. Roland Lloyd Parry, The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 75.

24 APRIL 2006

The German Federal Government gave an answer to members of parliament on the German policy and efforts to recover art objects removed by the Russian army from Germany to Russia after World War II. Deutscher Bundestag, 16. Wahlperiode, Drucksache 16/1386, p. 1.

26 APRIL 2006

Hearing in Rome in the procedure against Marion True and some art dealers. Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2006, p. 18.

27 APRIL 2006

The Swiss cantons of St. Gallen and Zürich settled their dispute about cultural objects (ancient and modern manuscripts, globe) and stipulated an agreement about title to these objects and their exhibition in the respective canton or in the Swiss Landesmuseum in Zürich. The art objects were looted in the second war of Villmergen in 1712. Art Law Center News 13 (2006): 2; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 28 April 2006, p. 41.

27 APRIL 2006

The U.K. Spoliation Advisory Committee recommended that, after a settlement, the heirs of the Czech collector Arthur Feldmann should receive payment (£175,000) for four old master drawings from the Feldmann collection looted during the Nazi-era and discovered in the British Museum. The Art Newspaper, February 2006, p. 1 and June 2006, p. 12; 9 (1) IFAR Journal, (2006): 13–14.

28 APRIL 2006

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) referred to a report by the Supervision Authority in Libya describing thefts of historical artifacts as “widespread.” Culture without Context 18 (2006): 11.

28 APRIL 2006

Swiss police arrested a neurologist in Lausanne who had embezzled a lot of money (about SFr. 2 million) from a research fund and had bought valuable books on art and poetry. This library of 133 books was auctioned by Christie's in Paris for €4.2 million. The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 59.

30 APRIL 2006

The Palazzo Grassi in Venice, owned by the French billionaire François Pinault opened with the exhibition “Where we are going” showing some of Pinault's recent acquisitions. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 24; Le Journal des Arts, 14–27 April 2006, p. 35; Il Giornale dell'Arte, April 2006, p. 12; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 28 April 2006, p. 35; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 29–30 April 2006, p. 25; The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 24; The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 1.

APRIL 2006

The Hermitage of St. Petersburg signed an agreement with the Portuguese Ministry of Culture about a possible Hermitage branch in Lisbon. Also, Italian cities welcome a permanent Russian presence. Lithuania does the same. The Art Newspaper, May 2006. p. 27.

APRIL 2006

Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Council of Antiquities, is mounting a campaign to repatriate artistic icons from museums around the world. Hochfield, ARTnews, May 2006, p. 78.

APRIL 2006

In Cologne a painting of Philipp Hackert (1737–1807) once held by Hitler's minister Albert Speer has been sold. Also, Speer was an art collector and had given his collection to the family Frank in Mexico and later sold art objects once and a while. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 April 2006, p. 37.

APRIL 2006

A group of 19 Native American and non-Native American archivists, librarians, museum curators, historians, and anthropologists gathered at Northern Arizona University Cline Library in Flagstaff, Arizona, and accepted Protocols for Native American Archival Materials. International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 441.

APRIL 2006

A court in Athens issued a ruling that legitimizes the existence of a religious association known as Ellinais. Ellinais has already applied for permission to worship at ancient temples such as the Parthenon and the temple of Poseidon in Sounion. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 1.

APRIL 2006

In the dispute whether the United States should ban the import of Chinese archaeological items the dealers lobbied against such an embargo and archaeologists were advocating for a import ban and an American-Chinese agreement under the 1970 UNESCO Convention. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 59.

APRIL 2006

Vladimir Petrov, the nineteenth-century Russian art specialist at the publicly owned Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, revealed in an exclusive interview with The Art Newspaper that he is convinced that corruption and criminality in the Russian art market has reached alarming levels. From May to September 2005 he uncovered 120 fake Russian works of art on the market. John Varoli, The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 52.

APRIL 2006

Austria, Croatia, and Slovenia hold the bases of an ancient Ionian column (the Fürstenstein) as a national monument of their state and want to preserve it within their territory and use it as a state symbol on coins. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 April 2006, p. 10.

APRIL 2006

A small panel of Stefano di Giovanni, called Sassetta (ca. 1400–1450) emerged in Turin, Italy. It is a panel of an altar the central panel of which is in the National Gallery in Washington, DC, acquired in the 1930s. The small panel cannot be acquired by the National Gallery because of Italian export restrictions. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 11.

APRIL 2006

The Russian-Swedish dispute about 28 works of art by twentieth century Russian painters (e.g., Boris Kustodiev, Alexander Yakovlev, Alexander Bednois, Alexander Golovin) currently in the Malmö Art Museum still continues. It is still unclear whether the paintings were legally acquired by Sweden. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 27.

APRIL 2006

A court ruled on the Hungarian Gold Train Case Settlement of September 30, 2005; and the United State denied any wrongdoing but issued a statement acknowledging that the property was “either abandoned, retained or damaged beyond repair” and agreed to pay $25.5 million into the Settlement Fund, of which $500,000 will be shared by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to document the history of the Hungarian Gold Train ands the looting of the Hungarian Jewish community during World War II. Lucille A. Roussin, IFAR Journal 9 (1) (2006): 8–9.

APRIL 2006

Treasure hunting in Bulgaria has dramatically escalated rapidly since the fall of communism and ensuing economic hardship. Culture without Context 18 (Spring 2006): 18–19.

APRIL 2006

The Ara Pacis in Rome opened with the new Ara Pacis Museum designed by the U.S. architect Richard Meier. The museum replaces a 1938 building constructed under the supervision of Mussolini. The modern building has been criticized by many government officials and other persons. The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 22; Il Giornale dell'Arte, April 2006, p. 47; Le Journal des Arts, 12–25 May 2006, p. 7.

APRIL 2006

The governor of Pennsylvania promised $25 million for support of the move of the Barnes Collection from Merion Township to the center of Philadelphia. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 13.

APRIL 2006

The Government of Guyana brought the Amerindian Act (Act no. 13 of 2005) into force. The term Amerindian, instead of indigenous, was chosen to comprise mainly the descendants of African slaves and indentured Indians. In this act rights of the Amerindians are guaranteed and protected. Bulletin of Legal Development, December 2006, p. 99.

APRIL 2006

Exhibition of Gustav Klimt's painting Adele Bloch-Bauer I in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The painting is owned by Maria Altmann and got it back from Austria in January 2006. International Herald Tribune, 7 April 2006, p. 9.

APRIL 2006

The National Geographic Society announced the discovery of an ancient text, which may amend the Jesus-Judas story. The manuscript, known as the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1700 years and has been translated. International Herald Tribune, 7 April 2006, p. 1.

APRIL 2006

Viktor Vekselberg, the mining and oil billionaire opened the first private museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Art Newspaper, January 2006, p. 1.

2 MAY 2006

Sotheby's of New York sold at auction 11 watercolors of the album “Design for Blair's Grave” of William Blake (1757–1827) for $6.2 million. The watercolors were dispersed after the Tate of London failed to raise money for the purchase of the album. The Louvre of Paris acquired the finest of designs for $1.4 million. Le Journal des Arts, 16 February–1 March 2007, p. 8; The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 55.

2 MAY 2006

It is difficult to evaluate the price of an art object to be acquired by a public gallery outside the auction market. After an assessment by independent experts, the price of an ancient portrait of John Donne, dating from 1585, was reduced and sold to the National Portrait Gallery in London. The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 24.

2–3 MAY 2006

Conference in Cairo at the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on the role of Italian archaeologists with respect to excavations in the Eastern Mediterranean. Il Giornale dell'Arte, May 2006, p. 56.

3 MAY 2006

On the evening of this day a new buyer from the former Soviet Union beat four of the world's leading collectors to buy Picasso's Dora Maar au Chat for $95.2 million at the Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art sale in New York. The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 49. Van Gogh's L'arlésienne, Madame Ginoux was sold for $40,3 million. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 6–7 May 2006, p. 51; Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2006, p. 63.

5 MAY 2006

The Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Foundation of the Prussian Cultural Heritage) announced that 71 pieces of the collection of musical documents have been returned to the heirs of the pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982). Kunst und Recht, 2006, p. 63.

6 MAY 2006

Opening of Richard Serra's new sculpture show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. Jason Edward Kaufman and Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 39.

7 MAY 2006

An arbitration tribunal in Vienna decided that the painting Amalie Zuckerkandl by Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) need not be returned to the heirs of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (i.e., Maria V. Altmann) and family Müller Hofmann. The return claim is not covered by the Austrian Statute of 1998 on the Return of Art Objects. Available at 〈www.bslaw.com/altmann/Zuckerkandl/decision.pdf〉. Georg Graf, Österreichische Notar-Zeitung 2007, pp. 65 et seq.

9 MAY 2006

Columbia asked the United States to return six art objects on sale with Sotheby's of New York because they have been illegally exported. Le Journal des Arts, 26 May–8 June 2006, p. 39.

11 MAY 2006

The St. Louis Art Museum has rejected a claim by the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass that an ancient mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer in the museum's collection was taken illegally from Egypt (Saqqara) and must be returned. Jason Edward Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 5.

13 MAY 2006

In Berlin (Martin-Gropius-Bau) the debut exhibition “Egypt's Sunken Treasures” opened, exhibiting the treasures found by the French archaeologist Franck Goddio while exploring the sea at Alexandria and nearby Abukir for 10 years. Museums Journal (Berlin), April 2006, p. 56.

16 MAY 2006

Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, met the Greek culture minister Georgios A. Voulgarakis in Athens. The Getty Museum plans to accede to decade-old request for antiquities claimed by Greece. ARTnews, Summer 2006, p. 60; Martha Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 4.

16 MAY 2006

The French Cour de cassation decided that a bona fide purchaser has a claim against the owner for the purchase price he paid even if the object has already been returned to the owner by the police. Recueil Dalloz 2006, p. 2365.

17 MAY 2006

Francesco Rutelli was nominated Italian minister for cultural goods and affairs. Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2006, p. 1 and 10.

17 MAY 2006

The Dutch Secretary of State adopted the recommendation of the Dutch Restitution Committee to return to the heirs of the German Jew Erwin Samuel Simon two paintings of Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636–1693) and Guido Reni (1575–1642). Advisory Committee on the Assessment of Restitution Applications for Items of Cultural Value and the Second World War (ed.), Report 2006 (The Hague 2007) p. 18–19.

19 MAY 2006

Austria passed the Federal Statute on the temporary immunity in rem of cultural objects lent for purposes of public exhibitions (Bundesgesetz über die vorübergehende sachliche Immunität von Kulturgut-Leihgaben zum Zweck der öffentlichen Ausstellung). The act provides in §4 the immunity from law suits as well as from seizure. Bundesgesetzblatt für die Republik Österreich 2006 I Statute No. 65.

20 MAY 2006

The exhibition of works by the Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain at Asia House in London was closed after three South Asian men entered the show and sprayed black paint on two works depicting the Hindu deities Durga and Draupadi naked. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 1.

23–24 MAY 2006

A conference “Protection of Cultural Objects: International Experiences and Perspectives” took place in Hamburg, Germany. Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kunst- und Museumsbibliotheken AKBM-news 12(2) (2006): 35.

24 MAY 2006

Publication of a list of national central offices nominated by the member states of the European Union, which, according to the Directive 93/7/EEC of 15 March 1993, are responsible for the return of illegally removed cultural objects. Official Journal of the European Union, 2006, No. C 123

30 MAY 2006

The auction house Dorotheum in Vienna sold at auction the painting Totentanz by Albin Egger-Lienz (1868–1926) for €912,000. The painting was returned to their former owners, who decided to sell it in Austria at auction. Der Standard, 24–25 May 2006, p. 31. In July 2006 it was sold for €780,000 to a private collector. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 15–16 July 2006, p. 27.

31 MAY 2006

Charles Wheeler, a well-known correspondent of BBC, returned the painting Portrait of a Lady with Dog by Alessandro Allori (1535–1607) to the Art Gallery in Berlin. Wheeler had received the painting (stolen in 1944) from an East German peasant as a gift in 1952 and learned in 2005 that the painting had been stolen during World War II and was missing from the Berlin museum. Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz XLII (2006): 289–291; ARTnews Summer 2006, p. 86.

31 MAY 2006

Three London auction houses sold £35.9 million worth of Russian art at the end of May. The biggest surprise was Sotheby's record-breaking 31 May sale. Making £27.6 million ($52.1 million), it was the highest-grossing Russian sale ever, breaking the $46.7 million record set by Sotheby's New York saleroom on 26 April. On 1 June, a Russian sale at Olympia earned Sotheby's another £1.7 million. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 47.

MAY 2006

The thieves of the Munch paintings The Scream and Madonna were sentenced in Oslo to jail and compensation. The stolen paintings were found on 31 August 2006 in Oslo. ARTnews, Summer 2006, p. 80; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 1 September 2006, p. 7.

MAY 2006

Chinareview reported on the escalating destruction of archaeological sites in China. Culture without Context 18 (Spring 2006): 22.

MAY 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” in the Field Museum of National History in Chicago. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Council of Antiquities, learned that John Rowe, a trustee of the Field Museum, is private owner of an Egyptian sarcophagus. Zahi Hawass objected and demanded return and, until then, exhibition in the museum. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 7.

MAY 2006

Vilas Likhite, a former Harvard professor and disgraced former doctor has been found guilty of attempted theft in a county superior court in Los Angeles. He was already arrested last year when he tried to sell a fake Mary Cassatt (1845–1926) for $800,000 to an officer posing as a Korean businessman. The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 62.

MAY 2006

Egypt announced a new phase of restoration of the Great Sphinx of Giza. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 31.

MAY 2006

Christie's withdrew from the Australian territory. The Art Newspaper, June 2007, p. 63.

MAY 2006

The proposed Washington, DC, tour of the Nimrud gold from the Baghdad Museum of Iraq was cancelled because of lack of support from the U.S. State Department. The Nimrud gold was supposed to be exhibited in February 2007 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The hope was that it would then travel to 10 international venues, raising around $10 million for the Baghdad Museum. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, April 2006, p. 1 and June 2006, p. 7.

MAY 2006

The statue Hercules and Omphale by Balthasar Permoser (1651–1732) returned to the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Arts and Crafts) in Berlin after having been stolen in 1945 and discovered in an auction catalog of Sotheby's New York. Jahrbuch Preussischer Kulturbesitz XLII (2006): 284–286.

MAY 2006

Michail Piotrovskij, the director of the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, travelled in Italy to find out where to establish the Italian branch of the Hermitage, in Ferrara, Mantova, or Verona. Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2006, p. 6.

1 JUNE 2006

The members of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) approved the Report of the AAMD task force on the Acquisition and Stewardship of Sacred Objects. International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 419.

1 JUNE 2006

Sales of Russian art hit a high of £28 million at Sotheby's of London, the latest in a string of record-setting auctions. Russian billionaires competed for nineteenth- and early twentieth-century paintings. ARTnewsletter XXXI (20 June 2006): 1.

3–4 JUNE 2006

Very successful auction of Russian art in Uppsala, Sweden. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 July 2006, p. 63.

4–8 JUNE 2006

72^nd biannual conference of the International Law Association (ILA) took place in Toronto and adopted the Principles for Cooperation in the Mutual Protection and Transfer of Cultural Material submitted by the Committee on Cultural Heritage. ILA (ed.) Report of the Seventy-Second Conference Toronto, London 2007, p. XX; International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 409.

5 JUNE 2006

Joseph Mallord William Turner's watercolor The Dark Rigi of 1842 was sold in London to a private buyer for reportedly £2.7 million. The same day Turner's The Blue Rigi was sold at a Christie's auction for £5.8 million. An export ban has been placed on the latter watercolor of Turner (1775–1851). Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 46 and September 2006, p. 1; Le Journal des Arts, 15 December 2006–4 January 2007, p. 7.

6 JUNE 2006

The European Parliament passed a resolution on the protection and reservation of the religious heritage in Northern Cyprus; since the Turkish invasion in 1974, 133 churches have been desecrated, 78 transformed into mosques, 28 used as military hospitals, and 13 as deposits. Il Giornale dell' Arte, December 2006, p. 12.

6 JUNE 2006

The Museo del Prado in Madrid celebrated the 25th anniversary of return of Picasso's Guernica to Spain. Il Giornale dell'Arte, June 2006, p. 19.

7 JUNE 2006

The District Court of Amsterdam decided that the Dutch Ministry of Culture must give more reason for the decision why the art collection of Franz W. Koenigs should not be returned to his granddaughter Christine Koenigs. Die Zeit, 13 July 2006, p. 42.

8 JUNE 2006

A colloquium on “L'art contemporain confronté au droit” (Contemporary Art faces the Law) took place in Paris, discussing the problems of copyright, of personality and of criminal law. Le Journal des Arts, 26 May–8 June 2006, p. 30 and 8–21 September 2006. p. 46.

9 JUNE 2006

Opening of the Library Oechslin in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, The Swiss architect Mario Botta designed the library building for 50,000 valuable books on art, architecture and humanities. Nike Bulletin 5 (2006): p. 14.

9 JUNE 2006

Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance has declared that the Smithsonian Institution's chief executive Lawrence M. Small is unfit to serve as its head because of “crass commercialisation,” as a Congressman called it. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 11.

10 JUNE 2006

Hubertus Czernin (1956–2006) passed away in Vienna. He was a key figure in the recovery of art looted by the Nazis. He is best remembered in the art world for his discovery in 1999 of records documenting the misappropriation of works from the collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer, including the masterworks of Gustav Klimt, returned to Maria Altmann on 15 January 2006 and acquired by Ronald Lauder on 19 June 2006. ARTnews, September 2006, p. 87.

10 JUNE 2006

The participants of the National-Regional Meeting at Tirana, Albania recommended actions to fight the illicit traffic of cultural property. International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 413.

12 JUNE 2006

The “Venice in Peril Fund” met in London and discussed the problems created in 1966 at the time of the “grande alluvione.” Some people said, “Stop financing for the protection of Venice.” Il Giornale dell'Arte, July/August 2006, p. 1.

13 JUNE 2006

Jean-Noël Jeannerey, president of the Bibliothèque National de France (BNF), has announced that the BNF is going to sue Josef Goldman for recovery of the manuscript, Hebreu 52, stolen before 2000 and sold in 2000 by Christie's New York to Josef Goldman. Le Journal des Arts, 23 June–6 July 2006, p. 3.

14 JUNE 2006

Opening of the Max-Klinger-House in Naumburg, Germany, the last abode of the artist Max Klinger (1857–1920) after years of restoration. At the same time, it was discovered that the former keeper of the archive Walter Wirth had misappropriated several drawings and one painting. art, August 2006, p. 110.

14 JUNE 2006

The art fair “Art Basel” was held in Basel, Switzerland, and posted strong sales and equaled last year's attendance of 56,000. ARTnewsletter XXXI (July 5, 2006): 5.

15 JUNE 2006

Sotheby's of New York sold at auction one of the first American flags with 13 stripes of 1776–1778, which was taken as booty on July 2, 1779, by Lieutenant Banastre Tarleton and taken as trophy to England. The flag was sold for $11 million to an unknown telephone participant. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17 June 2006, p. 54.

16 JUNE 2006

A Paris auction house withdrew two seals of Jade of the Chinese Emperor Qianlong (1736–1795) because the director of the Musées de France wants to check whether they belong to the Musée Guimet. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9 September 2006, p. 43.

19 JUNE 2006

Ronald Lauder bought Portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt (1862–1918), which was returned by Austria to Ms. Altmann for $135 million and will be exhibited in the Neue Galerie in New York. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 June 2006, p. 47, 21 June 2006. p. 16; 22 June 2006, p. 47; New York Times, 19 June 2006, p. 1; art, August 2006, p. 115; The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 12.

19 JUNE 2006

The Detroit Institute of Arts and the Toledo Museum of Art filed lawsuits against Mrs. Martha Nathan's heirs of the Frankfurt Dreyfus family seeking a declaratory court decisions that they hold the paintings Street Scene in Tahiti by Paul Gauguin (since 1969 at the Toledo Museum) and The Diggers by Vincent van Gogh (bought in 1939 by the Detroit Museum) as rightful owners, that the paintings were not sold in 1938 (in Paris for $9,300 or $6,800) as a result of Nazi persecution of the Jewish owner Martha Nathan who died in 1958 in Switzerland where she lived since 1939 and that the works of art are not subject to restitution claims. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 13.

19 JUNE 2006

At the seminar “Contested Cultural Property and Museums: The Case of the Hunt Museum” in Dublin sponsored by the Royal Irish Academy, the Hunt Museum of Dublin presented its final report concerning provenance research the museum has conducted into the history of ownership of objects in its collection. The academy commissioned the Hunt Museum Evaluation Group to oversee the museum's study of its collection in response to allegations by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Paris that the museum's founders (John and Gertrude Hunt) had assembled its collection with the wartime assistance of art dealers with strong Nazi collections. Thomas R. Kline, Kunst und Recht, 2006, pp. 99–102.

20 JUNE 2006

The painting Sonnenblumen or Herbstsonne by Egon Schiele (1890–1918), lost since World War II, was discovered recently and sold for £11.8 million with Christie's in London. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 May 2006, p. 50.

21 JUNE 2006

The Getty Trust and the Italian Ministry of Culture announced that they have reached a tentative agreement in which the Getty will return objects from its collection that are believed to have been illegally excavated and smuggled from Italy. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 6; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26 June 2006, p. 48.

22 JUNE 2006

Christie's of London planned to auction nine drawings of the Russian avant-garde architect and graphic designer Yakov Chernikhov (1889–1951). It was discovered that drawings were stolen from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow and replaced by low-quality fakes. Konstantin Akinsha, ARTnews, October 2006, p. 90; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 17.

22 JUNE 2006

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois decided in the ongoing proceedings of victims of the Hamas bombing in Jerusalem in 1997 that only the sovereign could assert immunity under the Federal Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA) and not the University of Chicago (Field Museum of Natural History). Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 436 Federal Supplement 2d 938 (N.D.Ill. 2006); Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 625.

23 JUNE 2006

Opening of the ethnographic Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. The new building by Jean Nouvel exhibits indigenous art from all over the world and exhibited formerly in the Musée de l'Homme and the Musée national des arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 23 June 2006, p. 25, and 4 September 2006, p. 27; ARTnews, June 2006, p. 86; Le Journal des Arts, 14–27 April 2006, p. 3, and 23 June–6 July 2006, p. 15; The Art Newspaper, June 2006, p. 20; Culture without Context, 18 (Spring 2006): 18.

29 JUNE 2006

The UN Human Rights Council adopted by resolution 2006/2 the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. According to this not binding declaration, indigenous peoples have the right to protect their archaeological and historical sites and artifacts (Article 11 section 1) and to develop their cultural heritage (Article 31 section 1). Claire Charters, New Zealand Law Journal (October 2006): 335–337.

30 JUNE 2006

The Landgericht Hamburg (County Court Hamburg) in Germany gave a judgment against the Kunsthalle Hamburg and ordered the institution to pay €271,326 to the attorney Edgar Liebrucks of Frankfurt am Main for his successful efforts to find and recover the painting Nebenschwaden of Caspar David Friedrich on loan in Frankfurt and stolen at the exhibition on 28 July 1994. The painting had been discovered in 2003 and restored to the Kunsthalle in August 2003. Tim Kistenmacher, Kunst und Recht 2006, pp. 85–88.

30 JUNE 2006

The Landgericht Hamburg (County Court Hamburg) obliged an art gallery, which as an agent of the artist sold her sculptures, to disclose the names of purchasers of the sculptures as soon as the agency came to an end. The artist wanted to know the owners of her sculptures to inform museums to whom they may turn for loans. Kunst und Recht, 2007, p. 17 with comments by Benjamin Raue at p. 16 et seq.

JUNE 2006

Czech museums decline to return paintings to the heirs of the Nazi victim Oskar Federer although being obliged to do so according to a judgment of the Czech Supreme Court. Kristina Alda, ARTnews, Summer 2006, p. 74.

JUNE 2006

The heirs of Hans Sachs, collector of posters, request the return of the posters held by the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin; although Mr. Sachs had already been compensated for his collection. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 June 2006, p. 38.

JUNE 2006

It has been reported that looting gangs in Romania use modern technology such as metal detectors and are damaging archaeology as they search for the legendary treasure of King Decebalus, hidden in a.d. 106 and never found by the Romans. Culture without Context 18 (Spring 2006): 19–20.

JUNE 2006

Following an anonymous tip-off to a government official in Usak, western Turkey, it was discovered that objects from the Croesus Treasure, also known as the Lydian Hoard and previously displayed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the East Greek Treasure, were replaced by fakes. The Lydian Hoard had been returned to Turkey in 1993 following a lengthy and expensive court case with the Metropolitan Museum. Culture without Context 18 (Spring 2006): 20.

JUNE 2006

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, restituted its only painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) Glaucus and Scylla (1841), to the heirs of John and Anna Jaffe. The British couple lived in Nice, France. Anna inherited her husband's art collection in 1933 but was trapped in France by the war and died in 1942 in Nice. In 1943 the property of the Jaffes was seized by the Vichy government and the art collection sold at a “Jewish auction” in 1943. Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 618.

JUNE 2006

A felt suit made by Joseph Beuys (1921–1986), stolen 18 years ago, surfaced with a Düsseldorf art gallery and was seized by the police. It is number 18 of 100 specimens of felt suits and was offered for €64,000. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 18 August 2006, p. 9.

JUNE 2006

Journalists were shown an Etruscan tomb near Veio, north of Rome, believed to be the oldest known frescoed burial chamber in Europe and dating back to at least the seventh century b.c. An Italian man arrested as part of the police operation against the “Mozart” smuggling ring, but who is now working with the authorities, had revealed the tomb to archaeologists in May. Culture without Context 18 (2006): 17.

JUNE 2006

76 archaeological items that had been smuggled from Syria to Lebanon in 2001 were returned according to a cultural agreement between the two governments under the terms of the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Culture without Context 18 (2006): 12.

JUNE 2006

The ninth Duke of Buccleuch revealed that also he loaned his painting Madonna of the Yarnwinder (stolen on 27 August 2003) by Leonardo da Vinci to the biggest Leonard exhibition in 1939 in Rome. Also, France promised to lend the Mona Lisa (which never happened); and King George VI sent 19 of his best Leonardo drawings to avert war between Mussolini's Italy and the nonfascist countries. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, July/August 1996, p. 30.

JUNE 2006

The United Kingdom will return to Greece a rare Roman coin, depicting Brutus, which had been in the possession of the United Kingdom-based Classical Numismatic Group. It was handed over to the Greek Embassy in London following an operation by British customs at Stansted airport where two Greek men leaving Britain after a single day's visit were stopped and discovered to be carrying a large sum of money, received in payment for the coin. The Greek return claim was based on the EU Directive of 1993 on the Return of Cultural Objects unlawfully Removed from the Territory of a Member State. Culture without Context 18 (2006): 16.

JUNE 2006

Sotheby's acquired the gallery of antiquities Robert Noortman in Maastricht. Sotheby's will also take over the spacious stand of Noortman at the TEFAF fair. Il Giornale dell' Arte, November 2006, 0. 75.

JUNE 2006

The Montparnasse Museum in Paris was searched by police as part of an investigation into fake Modiglianis (up to 1000) currently circulating on the art market in France and elsewhere. The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 43; ARTnews, September 2006, p. 82.

JUNE 2006

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark, founded in 1906 by Carl Jacobsen (1842–1914) the owner of the Carlsberg brewery, rejected again a claim by Italy on one of its most outstanding pieces, a 3000-year-old Roman chariot acquired by the museum 1970 in Switzerland. As a compromise, however, the Glyptotek will lend objects to Italy. The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 10; art, September 2006, p. 130.

3 JULY 2006

The Berlin Picture Gallery returned the painting Steinigung des Heiligen Stephanus by Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804) to the rightful owners. The painting was sold in London on 7 December 2006 for €400,000 to the State of Bavaria to be returned to the Abbey of Münsterschwarzbach near Würzburg for which the painting was painted in 1754. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 5 July 2006, p. 41.

5 JULY 2006

The French Act 2006-791 authorizes the French ratification of the UN Convention of 3 November 2003 for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Property (International Journal of Cultural Property (2005): 447). Journal officiel de la République Française 2006, p. 10116.

8 JULY 2006

Signing of an agreement between the Guggenheim Foundation and Abu Dhabi to build a new museum which will be named the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. ARTnews, September 2006, p. 80.

10 JULY 2006

Greek authorities and the J. Paul Getty Trust announced an agreement under which the Trust will return two objects (a Thasian relief and a Boetian stele) from the Getty's antiquities collection to Greece. XXXI ARTnewsletter, 18 July 2006, p. 4; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 10.

10 JULY 2006

Two paintings of Adolf von Menzel (1815–1905), Bauerhof in Hofgastein and Schmiede zu Gastein, missing in Berlin since World War II, were returned to Berlin after having been discovered with Christie's and reacquired from the present owner. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 July 2006, p. 35.

11 JULY 2006

UNESCO has put the German city of Dresden in its category of sites “in danger” and threatened to remove its heritage status entirely if the bridge project (“Waldschlösschenbrücke”) crossing the Elbe River near the city is built. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 July 2006, p. 35; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 35.

14 JULY 2006

The National Gallery in London is opening a display of the Mond bequest partly in response to concerns raised by a family member who some years ago argued that the Gallery has not respected his ancestor's wishes and therefore demands the return of the 42 pictures. The Mond bequest is the largest single bequest ever left to the National Gallery. It was left by the widow of Dr. Ludwig Mond (1839–1909) in 1924. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 15.

16 JULY 2006

At the closing of the exhibition “Los Angeles 1955–85: The Birth of an Art Capital” in the Centre Pompidou of Paris, the Plexiglas sculpture of Craig Kauffman, on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, shattered and must be compensated. Laurie Hurwitz, ARTnews, November 2006, p. 86; Le Journal des Arts, 8–21 September 2006, p. 6.

20–21 JULY 2006

The conference “Encouraging the Mobility of Collections” was organized in Helsinki by Finland's EU presidency in cooperation with the European Commission. Norman Palmer, Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 275–287.

21 JULY 2006

Opening of the exhibition “The Guggenheim Collection” in the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn, Germany. Die Zeit, 20 July 2006, p. 30; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22 July 2006, p. 33.

21 JULY 2006

Opening of an exhibition of works of Arno Breker (1900–1991) in Schwerin, Germany, the capital of the Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Arno Breker was the favorite sculptor of Adolf Hitler. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21 July 2006, p. 5; 24 July 2006, p. 29; and 5 August 2006, p. 41; ARTnews, October 2006, 96; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 22–23 July 2006, p. 25.

21 JULY 2006

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Art Crime Team announced the arrest of three individuals for the illegal importation of pre-Columbian artifacts from Ecuador into the United States in violation of the National Stolen Property Act and the U.S. Customs statute. Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 623.

22 JULY 2006

An export licence for the export of the painting “Portrait on an Artist” by Michiel van Musscher (1645–1703) was granted to the Prince of Liechtenstein who bought the painting for £6.6 million and wants to exhibit it in his museum in Vienna. The export licence was deferred until 23 May and again until 22 July 2006 but no U.K. museum could match the high price. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 23.

25 JULY 2006

The United States returned to Iraq the statue of King Entemena of Lagash made in Ur in 2430 b.c., which was stolen from the Iraq National Museum when it was sacked in April 2003. Le Journal des Arts, 8–21 September 2006, p. 3; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 7.

25 JULY 2006

The Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany published the paper “Nazi-Era Stolen Art and U.S. Museums: A Survey” on U.S. museums, concerning adherence to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the procedures and guidelines recommended by the American Association of Museums regarding objects transferred in Europe during the Nazi Era. Many museums responded to a questionnaire and gave information about their provenance research. Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2006, p. 58. The Jewish Claims Conference blames many American museums for not thoroughly investigating the origins of Nazi-era works in their collections. ARTnews, September 2006, p. 58; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 8.

29 JULY 2006

The state of the Netherlands published in daily newspapers a notification about the final closing date (4 April 2007) for restitution applications “Cultural objects and the Second World War.” The unclaimed 4.217 objects still form the “NK collection” (named after the SNK, Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit). Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29–30 July 2006, p. 5; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29 July 2006, p. 17; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 9.

31 JULY 2006

Sotheby's 10th anniversary sale of Australian Aboriginal art in its Melbourne saleroom was met with mixed results. Overseas interest was muted by growing awareness of the need to obtain export permission from the Australian government for some of the early works. ARTnewsletter XXXII (5 September 2006): 8.

JULY 2006

Exhibition of art works of Werner Tübke (1929–2004) in the house of parliament of the German land Thüringen. Also exhibited was the etching Fascist Terror in Hungary 1956. Tübke was one of the most important East German artists. The etching had to be removed after protest against this defamation of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. art, October 2006, p. 147, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 July 2006, p. 33.

JULY 2006

The Louvre of Paris signed several long-term agreements with the Sudan at Khartoum for cooperation in the field of archaeology, and other cultural matters. International Herald Tribune, 9–10 September 2006, p. 9.

JULY 2006

Excavations in Mongolia led to the discovery of a frozen body of a Scythian warrior of about 500 b.c. The archaeological campaign was headed by German archaeologists (especially Hermann Parzinger, then president of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin), and the University of Göttingen, Germany, is going to explore the body. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 5 January 2007, p. 57; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26 August 2006, p. 33; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 29 August 2006, p. 7.

JULY 2006

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, discovered that 221 decorative objects have been stolen from the reserve collection of the museum. Sharon Flescher, IFAR Journal 9 (1) (2006): 11–12, 53–54; ARTnews, October 2006, p. 84; Le Journal des Arts, 8–21 September 2006, p. 10. An icon was recovered very quickly. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3 August 2006, p. 31, 7 August 2006, p. 35; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 2 August 2006, p. 7. Three men were arrested. The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 17; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 August 2006, p. 38.

JULY 2006

The Luther-Gedenkstätten in Wittenberg, Germany, and Eisleben, Germany, have attracted more visitors since they were nominated part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29 July 2006, p. 37.

JULY 2006

A dispute has arisen between Guy Wildenstein, president of the prestigious firm New York Wildenstein & Co., and the Mandarin Trading Ltd., a Bahamian company. Guy Wildenstein had estimated the painting Paysage aux trois Arbres by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) with a value of $15 million to $17 million without revealing that Wildenstein had an ownership interest in the painting. Mandarin bought the painting for $11.3 million and could only sell it for $9 million. Mandarin wants to bring a law suit against Wildenstein. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 50.

JULY 2006

Valuable antiquities have been stolen from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 77.

JULY 2006

It has been revealed that the Gemeentemuseum of The Hague sold the painting Sill Life with Flowers of Russian avant-garde artist Ilja Mashkov (1881–1944) for $3.6 million without having followed the guidelines for deaccessioning artworks. ARTnews, October 2006, p. 94.

JULY 2006

The Khardzhiev Foundation in Amsterdam announced that it will return the literary archive of Nicolai Khardzhiev (1903–1996) to Russia. The archive was smuggled out of Russia many years ago. ARTnews, September 2006, p. 84.

JULY 2006

An investigation by The Art Newspaper revealed that France wanted to lend Leonardo's Mona Lisa to Italy for the retrospective exhibition of Leonardo da Vince in 1939 in Milano to avert war. Also, King George VI loaned drawings of the Royal Collection. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 30.

JULY 2006

The Deutscher Museumsbund (German Association of Museums) will assist museums in their provenance research with respect to Nazi-looted art objects. arsprototo 1 (2007): 16.

1 AUGUST 2006

The French Loi n° 2006–961 revises the French copyright law and implements the European Directive of 27 September 2001 on the droit de suite. Journal officiel de la République Française of 3 August 2006, p. 11529.

1 AUGUST 2006

The government of Berlin returned the painting Berliner Strassenszene (1913) of Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938), bought 1980 by the Berlin Brücke-Museum to the family Alfred Hess as victims of Nazi persecution. A similar problem has arisen in Switzerland with respect to the watercolor Garten mit lesender Frau of August Macke (1887–1914). It also formed part of the Hess-collection and was donated to the Art Association of Aargau. Samuel Herzog, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 30 September–1 October 2006, p. 25. Cp. also Georgina Adam, The Nazi bounty hunters. The recovery of war loot is now a multimillion dollar business in which lawyers, auction houses and possibly even venture capitalists all have a stake, The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 1 and 4; Matthias Weller, Art Antiquity and Law (2007): 65; Michael Eissenhauer, Bulletin des Deutschen Museumsbundes 4 (2006): 1.

7 AUGUST 2006

The Republic of Iran finally entered a lawsuit (cp. January 2006) in Chicago in which a group of victims of terrorist bombings in Israel (in September 1997 at a shopping mall in Jerusalem) has sought, but not yet obtained, Iranian antiquities in the collections of U.S. museums (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Field museum of Natural History in Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Harvard University Art Museum). The victims want to enforce a $423.5 million judgement from a Washington, DC, federal court obtained against the Iran in 2003 as damages for their injuries in the attack. The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 12; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 July 2006, p. 38. .

9 AUGUST 2006

The Directors of the American Association of Art Museums released a new set of Guidelines regarding the acquisition and care of sacred objects from contemporary cultures. Jane Levere, ARTnews, October 2006, p. 72; Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 622.

15 AUGUST 2006

Louise Bryson has stepped in as the new head of the Getty board. ARTnews, December 2006, p. 59.

17 AUGUST 2006

President Bush passed a provision attached to the American Pension Protection Act of 2006 changes the regime of fractional gifts of art to museums. The new legislation requires donors of artworks to transfer full ownership and physical possession of a piece within 10 years or loose any tax deductions taken and pay stiff penalties. Daniel Grant, ARTnews, November 2006, p. 96; art, February 2007, p. 116; The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 11.

17–18 AUGUST 2006

A Byzantine icon of the fourteenth century has been stolen from the Monastery Elona in Leonidio, southeast of the Greek Peloponnesus. The icon with St. Mary and the Child is venerated as a sacred icon of miracles. Le Journal des Arts, 8–21 September 2006, p. 3; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 August 2006, p. 13.

19 AUGUST 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Tibet—Cloisters open their Treasuries” in the Villa Hügel in Essen, Germany, showing 140 objects. The exhibition comes from China and avoids any reference the present 14th Dalai Lama who left Tibet in 1959 for India. Also any reference to the time after 1940 when the Dalai Lama came to power and to the destruction of cultural objects is intentionally missing to get the exhibited objects out of the country. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 August 2006, p. 33, Die Welt, 15 August 2006, p. 25.

24–25 AUGUST 2006

The colossal statue of Pharaoh Ramesses II (ca. 1279–1213 b.c.) was transported from Ramesses Place in Cairo to Ghizeh close to the Pyramids. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26 August 2006, p. 7; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 26–27 August 2006, p. 7.

27 AUGUST 2006

The Krupp Foundation announced that it is going to finance with €55 million the new building of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 25 August 2006, p. 11.

28 AUGUST 2006

Canada's federal court issued a prohibition order against Sotheby's and its Canadian subsidiary Sotheby's Canada that requires the auctioneer to take preventive measures to avoid any future illegal activity (price fixing agreements with other auctioneers), as well as to pay the costs of the Canadian investigation, estimated to be about C$750,000. Christie's received immunity from any charges in exchange for its cooperation with the Canadian authorities. ARTnewsletter 32 (19 September 2006): 5.

30 AUGUST 2006

As a permanent loan to the “Friends of the Berlin New National Gallery,” Barnett Newman's (1905–1970) Broken Obelisk was placed in front of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Museums Journal, January 2007, p. 19.

30 AUGUST 2006

The U.S. District Court of Los Angeles decided the case Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain (cp March 2006) and gave a judgment in favor of Claude Cassirer of San Diego and obliged the Madrid museum to return the painting Rue Saint-Honoré après-midi. Effet de pluie of Camille Pissarro (1830–1903). The painting was formerly owned by Julius Cassirer of Munich and it had to be sold during the Nazi-period. 461 Federal Supplement 2d 1157 (C.D.Cal. 2006); Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 November 2006, p. 50; Kevin Chamberlain, Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 371–382.

31 AUGUST 2006

The Munch paintings The Scream and Madonna stolen on 22 August 2004 in Oslo are found and taken into security. Sharon Flescher, IFAR Journal 9 (1) (2006): 6–8; Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2006, p. 6; The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 7; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 September 2006, p. 9. The painting was irreparably damaged. The Art Newspaper, February 2007, p. 29.

31 AUGUST 2006

The Getty Museum returned, as announced on 10 July 2006, two archaeological objects allegedly illegally excavated in Greece to the Geek minister of Cultural Affairs in Athens. Le Journal des Arts, 8–21 September 2006, p. 3.

31 AUGUST 2006

Manuscripts of the 13-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) have been discovered in the Anna-Amalie-Library in Weimar, Germany. Die Zeit, 31 August 2006, p. 36.

AUGUST 2006

Donny George, president of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in Iraq, had to flee Iraq and went to the United States. The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 1 and November 2006, p. 34 and December 2006, p. 8 and 9; Il Giornale dell'Arte, January 2007, p. 41. He is teaching now archaeology at the Stony Brook University on Long Island. ARTnews, February 2007, p. 54.

AUGUST 2006

The Turkish Premier Minister Tayyip Erdogan placed the foundation stone for the Ilusu dam in Southeast Turkey. This dam will destroy about 70 villages of historical interest. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 27 September 2006, p. 7.

AUGUST 2006

The Berry-Hill Galleries in New York, which filed for voluntary bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in December 2005, tried to raise money for payments to its secured creditor ACG, a company that lends against art. Unsecured consignors having forgotten to make a filing under the Uniform Commercial Code may lose the proceeds from the sale of their consigned art. Lufkin, The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 46.

AUGUST 2006

The shark of the piece of art The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst and bought by Steve Cohen from Charles Saatchi in 1993 for £6.5 million is going to decompose and “die.” Can the shark be substituted by a new one? Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 64; The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 3.

AUGUST 2006

Opening of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture in the old Patent Office building in Washington, DC. The museum unites the National Portrait Galley and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 August 2006, p. 36.

AUGUST 2006

The Dutch Prince Claus Fund granted the 2006 award to the National Museum of Mali in Bamako. This museum plays a major role in the prevention of cultural looting and trafficking in the region. 〈Leidennetwork-bounces@te.verweg.com〉

AUGUST 2006

The Dutch parliament decided that every Dutch citizen has free access to the 26 Dutch state museums and will get a museum pass for free entry. The government opposed this decision because the museums have been turned recently to foundations (stichtingen) under private law and are supposed to finance themselves. art, September 2006, p. 130.

AUGUST 2006

The Victoria & Albert useum in London and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco have signed a 5-year agreement to offer each other “preferential status” for travelling shows. The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 16.

AUGUST 2006

Roman Kokoschka of Vienna, nephew of the artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), initiated a lawsuit in Switzerland against the Kokoschka Foundation at the Jenisch Museum in Vevey based on a will of Olda Kokoschka, Oskar Kokoschka's widow, arguing that he is the main beneficiary. The Kokoschka Foundation relies on a later will bequeathing the estate to the Foundation. Jane Levere, ARTnews, November 2006, p. 87.

1 SEPTEMBER 2006

A commission has been formed in Russia to check all Russian museums with respect to their holdings and potentially missing pieces. This is a reaction to the thefts in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg discovered in July 2006. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 August 2006, p. 37.

5 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Höllentor (Porte de l'Enfer) by Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) left the Kunsthaus Zürich for the Rodin exhibition in London. This is the most complicated loan ever handled by the museum in Zürich. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 6 September 2006, p. 37.

6–8 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Center on Uniform Law organized a conference in Mexico City on “The Legal Protection of Cultural Objects: Its Challenges and Limits.” Jorge Sánchez Cordero, International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 443.

7 SEPTEMBER 2006

The architectural plans for three new skyscrapers at the World Trade Center site have been revealed. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 6.

7 SEPTEMBER 2006

The European Court of Justice in Luxemburg upheld the French system of special professional requirements for the profession of a commissaire-priseur (official auctioneer). Case C-149/05 (Harold Price v. Conseil des ventes volontaires de meubles aux enchères publiques). Le Journal des Arts, 20 October–2 November 2006, p. 28.

9–10 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Leiden Network for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage met for the sixth time and held a meeting in Leiden, Netherlands, under the coordinating guidance of Jos van Beurden.

12 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Commission of the European Union submitted a proposal for a Council regulation on the export of cultural goods. The commission wants to codify the Regulation No. 3911/92 of 9 December 1992 on the same matter in an updated version. Commission document COM (2006) 513 final

13 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Cour d'appel de Lyon, France, has fined the artist and businessman Thierry Ehrmann (born 1962) €200,000 or $253,800 for defacing his eighteenth-century home in a quiet suburb of Lyon while transferring it into a work of art he titles “La Demeure du Chaos” (Abode of Chaos) and for thereby violating town planning laws by modifying the property without permission. His property is strewn with 2500 works of art, including a crashed helicopter and wrecked cars as well as features of reproduction of an oil platform on the roof. The building's walls are painted black and covered in signs and photographs of war as well as the faces of public figures including Osama bin Laden and President George W. Bush. International Herald Tribune, 15 September 2006, p. 10.

14 SEPTEMBER 2006

The executrix of the estate of Maria Glaser, wife of Curt Glaser (1879–1943) the director of the Berlin Art Library, wanted to know from Sotheby's the good faith purchaser at auction of the painting Strasse in Kragero by Edvard Munch (1863–1944) and brought a lawsuit against Sotheby's. The petitioner alleges that the painting was formerly owned by Curt Glaser, who had to sell in May 1933 to finance the flight of Curt and Maria Glaser out of Nazi Germany. In 1936 Curt Glaser tried to buy back the Munch painting. This showed, as the court argued, that there was a valid transfer in 1933 and therefore the petitioner failed to establish a meritorious cause of action for replevin. In re Ellen Ash Peters, 821 New York Supplement 2d 61 (App. Div. 2006); Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, 41 The International Lawyer 620 (2007).

14 SEPTEMBER 2006

Austria and Portugal ratified the UN Convention of 2 December 2004 on International Immunity of States and their Property. Nederlands Tractatenblad, December 2006, Appendix p. 17.

14 SEPTEMBER 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment and Design” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London without the Codex Leicester (alias Codex Hammer) as a loan from Bill Gates who bought the Codex in 1994 for $31 million at Christie's New York. The Codex has not been loaned because the museum could not afford the security measures required by Bill Gates. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 10.

15 SEPTEMBER 2006

The historical Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault) in the Royal Castle of Dresden opened again after having been shown elsewhere until the return to the original places. Vernissage 74 (September 2006): 4; Die Zeit, 31 August 2006, p. 25 and 82; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 8 September 2006, p. 25; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 September 2006, p. 36 and 37.

15 SEPTEMBER 2006

After 10 years of restoration the Musée des Arts Décoratifs opened in the Marsan del Palazzo wing of the Louvre of Paris. Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2006, p. 39; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 18 September 2006, p. 25.

16–17 SEPTEMBER 2006

European countries had their Weekend of Cultural Heritage for the 23d time. Le Journal des Arts, 8–21 September 2006, p. 8.

18 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Tate Museum in London released its biannual report for the period from April 2004–March 2006. According to this report the Tate purchased £12.2 million worth of art, was given or bequeathed £10.2 million, and acquired a total of 500 works during this two-year time. ARTnewsletter, No. 3 of October 3, XXXII (3) (2006): 1; The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 15.

20 SEPTEMBER 2006

The French Cour de cassation in his judgment no. 1350 (Nigeria c. Alain de Montbrison) held that the 1970 UNESCO Convention is not self-executing and directly applicable. This question arose in a lawsuit of Nigeria to recover Nok statues offered for sale by a Paris auction house. Newsletter of the Art-Law Centre Geneva 14 (January 2007): 3.

20 SEPTEMBER 2006

Publication of a proposal of the Commission of the European nion for a regulation on the export of cultural objects. Commission Document COM (2006) 513 final.

20 SEPTEMBER 2006

The parliament (Landtag) of the Principality of Liechtenstein passed a resolution and awarded 1.15 million Swiss Francs for participation in the acquisition of the Collection Rolf Ricke (mostly modern American art) by the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland) the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, and the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany. Liechtensteinisches Landesgesetzblatt 2006 no. 15; art, January 2007, p. 115.

21 SEPTEMBER 2006

The British Department for Culture, Media and Sports deferred the export of Turner's watercolor The Blue Rigi sold for £5.8 million on June 5, 2006, until November 20, 2006, and possibly until March 2007. ARTnewsletter, XXXII (3) (October 3, 2006): 4. The Dark Rigi sold by the London dealer Simon Dickinson for £2.7 million to an anonymous private U.K. buyer might be lent to the Tate Gallery. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 5.

21 SEPTEMBER 2006

The auctions house Nagel in Stuttgart sold at auction a rhinoceros goblet and a rock crystal miniature casket even though registered with the Art Loss Register in Cologne and the Loss Register in Magdeburg as war losses of the Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha. The attorney general of Stuttgart is now taking care of the matter. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 October 2006, p. 49. Two objects have been seized by the state attorney because they might have been stolen. Handelsblatt, 20–22 October 2006, p. 3; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 October 2006, p. 49.

22 SEPTEMBER 2006

The government of the German Land Baden-Württemberg is planning to sell the collection of valuable manuscripts of the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe to finance the restoration of Castle Salem of the Markgraf of Baden. In a letter 20 American and British scholars of art and history expressed their serious concern about the sale and protested against it as representatives of American and British top universities. The letter was written to a German leading daily newspaper and published immediately. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 28 September 2006, p. 44.

23 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Ara Pacis (13 b.c.) in Rome, Italy, with the new building of Richard Meier was officially inaugurated. Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2006, p. 49; ARTnews, October 2006, p. 60.

25 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London recovered the painting Woman at a Fountain by William Etty (1787–1849) stolen a week before. The Art Newspaper, January 2007, p. 18.

27 SEPTEMBER 2006

The administrative court of Gera, Germany, (Verwaltungsgericht Gera) decided that the furniture of silver belonging to the Princes of Reuss may be listed in the list of nationally important cultural objects without violating private property. art, January 2007, p. 112.

27 SEPTEMBER 2006

The Museum Rooseum in Malmö, Sweden, sold its entire collection of contemporary Nordic art in Stockholm. The holder of the Rooseum (family Roos, city of Malmö, and the Danish Louisiana Museum) were unwilling to subsidize any more the Rooseum. The proceeds of the auction will be invested in a new foundation for the promotion of Nordic artists, located in Malmö. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 25 March 2006, p. 49.

28 SEPTEMBER 2006

Boston's Museum of Fine Arts signed an agreement to transfer to Italy 13 antiquities from its collection. The returned objects include 11 ancient jars and vases, an early Roman marble relief and an over–life-sized marble statue believed to be of Sabina, wife of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Sharon Flescher, IFAR Journal 9 (1) (2006): 4–5; Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 10 and November 2006, p. 24; ARTnews, September 2006, p. 55; and December 2006, p. 66; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 30 June 2007, p. 37.

28 SEPTEMBER 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Holbein in England” in the Tate Britain without Holbein's Ambassadors of the National Gallery, because it is too fragile to travel across London. The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 1.

30 SEPTEMBER 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Rembrandt and the Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum” in Dayton, Ohio. In collaboration with three American Museums in Ohio (Dayton), Arizona (Phoenix), and Oregon (Portland), Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum has agreed to lend more than 100 Dutch masterpieces while the Rijksmuseum is closed for an extensive restoration and renovation project. ARTnews, September 2006, p. 66.

30 SEPTEMBER 2006

In a proceeding of victims of the 1997 terrorist bombing of Hamas in Jerusalem, the United States District Court for Massachusetts decided that antiquities belonging to Iran within the possession of university and its museum (Museum of Fine Arts of Harvard University) were immune from execution and attachment under FSIA; but antiquities that were the property of Iran would be subject to attachment and execution pursuant to Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA). Rubin v. The Islamic Republic of Iran, 456 Federal Supplement 2d 228 (D. Mass. 2006); Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 626.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The British Human Tissue Authority requires museums to obtain a licence for human remains less than 100 years old. Museums Journal (London), September 2006, p. 6.

SEPTEMBER 2006

Again, Iran announced its readiness to assist in the protecting and restoration of archaeological sites in Iraq, in particular the Ta-i Kisra, the great vaulted hall of the palace at Ctesiphon damaged in 1991 by U.S. bombing. Lucian Harris. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 26.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The Italian Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli published his plans for the future of Italian cultural goods and their care by state authorities and by private sponsors and investors. Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2006, p. 1 et seq. He also established a Loan Commission (Commissione prestiti), which should formulate uniform principles for loans between museums. The recommended principles, laid down on 9 November 2006, stress four guidelines: Works of art should be loaned unless they are registered as fragile pieces unfit for transport and dislocation, costs of lending, coherence of the planned exhibition, and material and immaterial reward by the exhibition. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 8; The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 7.

SEPTEMBER 2006

Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs revoked the prestigious art prize Ministry of Education Art Encouragement Prize from painter Yoshihiko Wada after determining that a number of his works were plagiarized and almost copies of the Italian artist Alberto Sughi (born 1928). ARTnews, October 2006, p. 102.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The Hermitage in St. Petersburg opened the exhibition “Menzel's Epoch” showing drawings of German artists of the nineteenth century. Most of the drawing were taken from private owners (mainly from the collector Friedrich von Lucanus, 1869–1947) and taken as war booty (the Russians called it displaced works of art as restitution in kind) to Russia. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 30 September 2006, p. 43.

SEPTEMBER 2006

It has been reported that Danish art dealers do not have problems of selling art objects illegally exported from Afghanistan or China. art, September 2006, p. 133.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The Tate Gallery in London released its biannual report and announced a new era of transparency of acquisitions after it has been criticized that it had paid too much for certain objects in recent years. ARTnews, November 2006, p. 100; The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 15.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London considers leasing paintings to private persons, companies, and museums. It has 2000 oil paintings but can only exhibit 170. Another 180 are on show elsewhere. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 4.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The California attorney general's office completed its 14-month investigation of the J. Paul Getty Trust and released a summary of its findings. The former chief executive Barry Munitz was charged of having spent too much money for his and his wife's travels. Jason Edward Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 9.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The shark of Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living once owned by Charles Saatchi and now owned by Stephen A. Cohen has been replaced by a new shark more diligently treated with formalin. ARTnews, May 2007, p. 102.

SEPTEMBER 2006

Peru asserts that Denmark is breaking international law by not helping to return 1156 stolen cultural artifacts. Leidennetwork 23 September 2006 (information by Lise Lundbaek).

2 OCTOBER 2006

The Italian section of ICOM have approved the “National Charta of Museum Professions” (Carta nazionale delle professioni museali). It defines the work of the museum professionals and fixes their duties and obligations. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 6.

2 OCTOBER 2006

Bernard Arnault, chairman of the luxury goods group LVMH and France's richest man, revealed his plans for a new gallery in Paris designed by the Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 22; Le Journal des Arts, 6–19 October 2006, p. 1, 36.

4 OCTOBER 2006

Appellate proceedings against the Roman art dealer Giacomo Medici started in Rome. Medici was convicted in December 2004 and sentenced to 10 years of prison for having sold to foreign collectors (Getty Foundation) unmerchantable Italian cultural property. Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2006.p. 24.

4–6 OCTOBER 2006

The Institute of Art and Law (Leicester) in association with the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest) and the Art-Law Center (Geneva) held a conference in Budapest on “Anti-Seizure and Legal Immunity” dealing with national and international instruments providing immunity from suit and/or from seizure of art objects on loan in local museums from foreign institutions. Press Release of the Institute of Art and Law, Leicester.

5 OCTOBER 2006

The Fondazione Zeri opened in the Convent of Santa Cristina in Bologna, Italy. The art historian Federico Zeri (1921–1998) left his estate, library of 90 thousand volumes, and collection of almost 300 thousand photos to the Foundation devoted to art research. Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2006, p. 14.

6 OCTOBER 2007

The U.S. government brought an action to forfeit an Egyptian alabaster vase for sale by Christie's at its June 2006 auction. The basis for the forfeiture was that the alabaster vase was imported into the United States contrary to customs law requiring truthful declaration on import documents. United States v. One Egyptian Alabaster Offering Vessel located at Christie's New York, N.Y.; Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, 41 The International Lawyer 623 (2007).

6–8 OCTOBER 2006

The Foire International d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) is held in Paris, Porte de Versailles. ARTnewsletter XXXI (25 October 2006): 2.

6–22 OCTOBER 2006

Exhibition “Art as booty, booty as art” in Holtzdorf Germany in memory of the Krebs Collection of modern art, taken by the Russian army and now shown in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, Russia, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17 October 2006, p. 39.

7 OCTOBER 2006

The Denver Art Museum's new building by architect Daniel Libeskind opened. The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 13; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 December 2006, p. 36.

9 OCTOBER 2006

The Centre universitaire du droit de l'art was instituted by the University of Geneva Faculty of Law and the Geneva based Foundation for the Law of Art (Fondation pour le droit de l'art). The first chair will be held by Marc-André Renold of Geneva, codirector of the Art-Law Centre of Geneva. Available at 〈http://www.unige.ch〉.

9–10 OCTOBER 2006

The association “Friends of the Haus der Kunst” of Munich sold its collection at auction in Munich for €5.5 million for the benefit of the museum. Handelsblatt, Kunstmarkt, 20–22 October 2006, p. 1; Die Welt, 11 November 2006, p. 31; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 August 2006, p. 33.

11 OCTOBER 2006

Police in Britain arrested 14 people as part of a crackdown on a gang of burglars who committed thefts in Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire. ARTnews, December 2006, p. 88.

14 OCTOBER 2006

In Heidelberg the Institut für Kunst und Recht (German Institute of Art and Law) was founded. Address is: D 69117 Heidelberg, Mantelgasse 10, info@ifkur.de The first directors are Nicolai Kemle and Matthias Weller. Available at 〈www.ifkur.de〉; Kunstrechtsspiegel 1 (2007): 5.

14 OCTOBER 2006

The Roman necropolis of the Vatican opened to the public and contributes to the exhibitions celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Vatican Museums. Il Giornale dell' Arte, October 2006, p. 68.

14 OCTOBER 2006

The Louvre of Paris started a cultural program with the High Museum of Atlanta, Georgia. Le Journal des Arts, 8–21 September 2006, p. 63.

15 OCTOBER 2006

The Circolo Ufficiali Forze Armate (Circle of Veterans) started to leave the Palazzo Barberini in Rome to more space for the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica. Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 10.

16 OCTOBER 2006

Three Britons are due to go on trial in Italy accused of illegally salvaging more than £320,000 worth of gold, silver, and diamonds from the shipwreck “Pollux,” which sank off the coast of Elba in 1841 and was found by the accused without any licence. Leidennetwork, 26 October 2006.

16 OCTOBER 2006

Derek Gillman, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Academy, became the new director of the Barnes Foundation. ARTnews, October 2006, p. 67; Le Journal des Arts, 6–19 October 2006, p. 8; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 11.

17 OCTOBER 2006

The controversial Sevso Treasure, consisting of 14 pieces of Roman silver and in storage for 16 years, is shown in a private exhibition at Bonhams in London. The treasure held by the Marquess of Northampton was offered for sale in New York when several states asked for recovery of the treasure as illegally excavated and exported in their country. They failed to convince the New York court of the alleged provenances and dismissed their claims for recovery. Hungary is still trying to recover the Sevso treasure as being illegally excavated in Hungary in the 1980s. Walter Bailey, The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 1; Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 59. Bonhams indicated later that they might sell the treasure. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 5.

17 OCTOBER 2006

The Bode-Museum (formerly Kaiser Friedrich-Museum) in Berlin opens and presents in five halls the numismatic collection (Münzkabinett) with 5000 objects, in five halls the Museum of Byzantine Art, and in 45 halls the Collection of Sculptures (Skulpturensammlung) with 1700 objects. Museums Journal 20 October 2006, p. 39; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 October 2006, p. 35; Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 43; The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 20; Le Journal des Arts, 17–30 November 2006, p. 6.

18 OCTOBER 2006

The Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (ICR) in Rome (Piazza San Francesco di Paola) celebrated its 65th anniversary. It was founded in 1938 by Cesare Brandi (1906–1988; first director until 1961), and started working in 1941. Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 14.

18 OCTOBER 2006

The trial of Marion True because of acquiring looted archaeological objects for the Getty Foundation continued in Rome and attracted the public. Federico Castelli Gattinara, Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 16.

18 OCTOBER 2006

The Marlborough Gallery in New York opened the exhibition of 80 paintings of the Colombian artist Fernando Botero showing, for example, pictures of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers in Abu Ghraib. The works of art have not yet been accepted by an American museum for an exhibition, The Art Newspaper, October 2006, p. 3.

19 OCTOBER 2006

In Genova, Italy, the recently discovered painting Crowning of Christ presumably of Caravaggio is exhibited. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 19 October 2006, p. 11.

20 OCTOBER 2006

Switzerland concluded the first agreement on the return of illegally exported cultural objects with Italy. Such agreements are necessary under the Swiss Federal Act on the International Transfer of Cultural Property, the Swiss implementation act of the 1970 UNESCO Convention. The agreement covers archaeological objects from 130,000 b.c. until 1500 a.d. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 21–22 October 2006, p. 34; Il Giornale dell' Arte, November 2006, p. 16; ARTnews, January 2007, p. 74.

23 OCTOBER 2006

The Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Museum approved the Museum Policy for Acquisitions enumerating in detail the conditions of acquisition. International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 423.

25 OCTOBER 2006

In Blanch v. Koons the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit ruled in favor of Jeff Koons and finally decided that he made fair use of copyrighted material in an artistic collage setting. Koons' collage Niagara used material from one of Andrea Blanch' photographs. Koons' collage was commissioned by Deutsche Bank and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, ARTnewsletter XXXII (28 December 2006): 5.

26 OCTOBER 2006

The J. Paul Getty Museum announced revised guidelines for acquiring antiquities. For the acquisition of any ancient work of art or archaeological material, the revised policy requires (1) documentation or substantial evidence that an item was in the United States by November 17, 1970 (date of the UNESCO Convention), and that there is no reason to suspect it was illegally exported from its country of origin; or (2) documentation or substantial evidence that the item was out of its country of origin before November 17, 1970, and that it has been or will be legally imported into the United States; or (3) documentation or substantial evidence that the item was legally exported from its country of origin after November 17, 1970, and that it has been or will be legally imported into the United States. Jason Edward Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 13.

26–27 OCTOBER 2006

The Committee for the Protection of Cultural Goods in Armed Conflicts convened in Paris and urged the ratification of the second protocol of 1999 to the 1954 Hague Convention. Il Giornale dell'Arte, February 2007, p. 19.

27–30 OCTOBER 2006

The 8th International Seminar “Art & Law” for European doctorate and doctor of philosophy candidates took place in the Castle of Dresden. Young scholars of Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland discussed in several European languages problems of their theses. Kunst und Recht, 2007, p. 26.

28 OCTOBER 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Mittelalterliche Handschriften der Badischen Landesbibliothek—Europäisches Kulturerbe” (Medieval Manuscripts of the State Library of Baden—European Cultural Heritage) in Karlsruhe. The manuscripts were to be sold as decided on 22 September 2006. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 October 2006, p. 35.

29 OCTOBER 2006

The British House of Commons amended the Tribunals, Courts, and Enforcement Bill and modified the draft of the Anti-Seizure-Statute providing immunity for artworks on loan from foreign lenders. Kunstrechtsspiegel 1 (2007): 27.

30 OCTOBER 2006

From October 30 to November 1, a regional conference in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) dealt with “Cultural Landscape: A Modern Approach to the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage in the Balkans.” Jelena Vilus, International Journal of Cultural Property 13 (2006): 445.

31 OCTOBER 2006

In Nairobi, Kenya opened the exhibition “Hazina” (Treasures): 140 loans from the British Museum and 20 from the National Museum of Kenya. The Art Newspaper, May 2006, p. 20.

OCTOBER 2006

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opened an exhibition on the French art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939) one of the supporters and dealer of the French avant-garde. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 14–15 October 2006, p. 27.

OCTOBER 2006

An agreement was signed between eBay UK and the British Museum and the Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council according to which the British museum is to monitor eBay sales to check that illegally acquired antiquities discovered in the United Kingdom are not being sold in the web site. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 5.

OCTOBER 2006

David Geffken of Hollywood sold the painting No 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) for approximately $140 million allegedly to the Mexican-English collector David Martinez. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 November 2006, p. 51.

OCTOBER 2006

Opponents of the Barnes Foundation's move from suburban Merion to downtown Philadelphia disclosed that a 2001 Pennsylvania state tax bill had allocated $100 million to support the Barnes' move even before a county court cleared the relocation by breaking founder Albert Barnes' (1872–1951) will. Jason Edward Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, November 2006. p. 12.

OCTOBER 2006

The Afghanistan Museum in Bubendorf, Switzerland, closed and prepared to return the collection to Kabul in Spring 2007. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 16 October 2006, p. 15; The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 1.

OCTOBER 2006

Steve Wynn of Las Vegas, owner of Picassos painting Le rêve (1932) inadvertently damaged the painting; and a planned sale to Steven A. Cohen did not take place. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 October 2006, p. 35; Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 1.Wynn brought later a lawsuit against his insurance company, Lloyd's, and is asking for coverage. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 13–14 January 2007, p. 17; The Art Newspaper, February 2007, p. 49; ARTnews, December 2006, p. 98.

OCTOBER 2006

The ship bells of the sunken ship Wilhelm Gustloff on loan from Poland with the Berlin exhibition “Erzwungene Wege” (Forced Routes) on the refugees was prematurely returned to Poland. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21 October 2006, p. 4 and 28 October 2006, p. 3.

OCTOBER 2006

The United States State Department agreed to delay a decision on a controversial request from China that the United States strictly limit imports of Chinese art and antiquities. 〈museum-security@museum-security.org〉, 18 October 2006.

OCTOBER 2006

The Italian special cultural property police, the Carabinieri del Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio culturale, of Florence and other Italian cities revealed that they recovered thousands of stolen and illegally excavated object in 2006. Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 16.

OCTOBER 2006

The painting Aimée, A Young Egyptian by Emile Lecomte-Vernet (1821–1900) was restituted to the estate of Dr. Max Stern (deceased 1987) who fled Germany in 1937 and was forced to sell his art collection. Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 617.

OCTOBER 2006

The Hermitage of St. Petersburg named Ferrara as the Italian city which will host the museum's Centre for Renaissance Studies. Ferrara was chosen ahead of Verona, Mantua, and Turin. The Centre for Renaissance Studies will be located in the Castello Estense. John Varoli, The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 28.

OCTOBER 2006

The English Public Catalogue Foundation, a registered charity based in the National Gallery, London, has come up with the first informed estimate for the number of paintings held in public collections in the United Kingdom: more than 150,000. Of these, the foundation says, more than 80% are not on view to the public. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 3.

OCTOBER 2006

During Franklin Roosevelt's “New Deal” economic recovery program between 1933 and 1942 artists were paid a weekly salary of $23 to $35 but they had to give their works to the government for public places such as libraries, offices, and schools. Many of these subsidized artists did not deliver their works. Now the U.S. government is quietly seizing these works of art as being government property. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 53.

OCTOBER 2006

The Italian minister of cultural affairs Rutelli published the plans of a special commission with proposals for more private initiatives and financial assistance of cultural activities in Italy during the next years. Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2006, pp. 16 et seq.

OCTOBER 2006

The dispute between Mr. Anthony Marshall, Mrs. Astor's son, and Mr. Marshall's son Philip was settled out of court. The dispute arose out of the purchase of the painting Flags, Fifth Avenue by Childe Hassam (1859–1935) for $172,010 in 1970 and the sale of it in 2002 for $10 million. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 51.

OCTOBER 2006

The Metropolitan Museum of New York opened a bureaux in Geneva. Le Journal des Arts, 3–16 November 2006, p. 7.

OCTOBER 2006

Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, announced that Michel Strauss, former director of the department of impressionism and modern art of Sotheby's, is going to become an adviser of the Hermitage and the opening of a collection of modern and contemporary art in the Hermitage. Le Journal des Arts, 3–16 November 2006, p. 6.

OCTOBER 2006

The French minister of cultural affairs Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres revealed the government plans for a new “public art facility” on the Ile Seguin in the river Seine. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 7.

OCTOBER 2006

Massimo Carcione of the University of Eastern Piemont, Italy, and member of the scientific committee for legal problems of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is vigorously pleading for a Red Cross of Cultural Goods (Croce Rosso dei Beni Culturali), for the promotion of more National Blue Shield Committees for the protection of monuments (following the Torino Declaration of 23–24 July 2004) and for the ratification of the 1999 2d Protocol of the 1954 Hague Convention. Il Giornale dell'Arte October 2006, p. 23.

3–4 NOVEMBER 2006

The Italian cities of Florence and Venice recalled the flood of the Arno river and of the Adriatic Sea, which 40 years earlier destroyed and damaged many buildings, libraries, and works of art in Florence, other places in Tuscany, and in Venice. Il Giornale dell'Arte, October 2006, p. 1 et seq., November 2006, p. 26 and December 2006, p. 18; ARTnews, February 2007, p. 78.

6 NOVEMBER 2006

Inauguration of the new Museo dell'Alto Medioevo (Museum of the High Middle Ages) in Rome outside of the Porta Marina at EUR. Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 59.

7 NOVEMBER 2006

The foundation stone of the Centre Pompidou Metz was laid in the capital of Lorraine. It shall open in 2008. Le Journal des Arts, 17–30 November 2006, p. 3.

8 NOVEMBER 2006

Christie's of New York sold at auction four Klimt paintings that were recently restituted to the heirs of the Austrian collector Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer for $192.7 million. The most important Klimt painting of the Bloch-Bauer collection, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, was purchased for a reported $135 million by Ronald Lauder. ARTnewsletter XXXII (28 November 2006): 2; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 11–12 November 2006, p. 27. The painting Adele Bloch-Bauer II by Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) sold for $77 million; and the painting Berliner Strassenszene by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938), returned by the Brücke Museum Berlin the Hess heirs on 1 August 2006, was sold for $38 million. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 10 November 2006, p. 39; Il Giornale dell'Arte, January 2007, p. 1; The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 49; Le Journal des Arts, 17–30 November 2006, p. 39. Both paintings are exhibited in the Neue Galerie New York. ARTnewsletter XXXII (6) (February 2007): 6.

8 NOVEMBER 2006

The Czech Lower House of Parliament approved the proposal to extend the deadline for making claims to recover art stolen in the Holocaust beyond 31 December 2006. The objects, which might have been stolen, are accessible on the web site of the Czech Ministry of Culture: 〈www.restitution:art.cz/english/main.html〉. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 5.

9 NOVEMBER 2006

Christie's of New York did not sell Picasso's painting Angel Fernández de Soto of 1903 (also called The Absinth Drinker). On November 8 a federal judge in New York had declined to prevent the sale because, as it had been alleged, the painting was owned by the Berlin banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and illegally confiscated in 1935. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the present owner of the painting, withdrew it from the auction. Heirs of the former owner initiated return proceedings in New York. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 November 2006, p. 41; 9 November 2006, p. 35; 11 November 2006, p. 51; and 22 November 2006, p. 44. Christie's is considering suing the heirs of the former owner for damages caused by their late return claim. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 52.

13 NOVEMBER 2006

The federal District Court for the Southern District of California decided the case Carmel v. Feldman and rejected the defendants' (heirs of Dr. Arthur Feldmann of Brno, Czech Republic, residents of Israel and the Commission for Looted Art in Europe) motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The plaintiff Iris Carmel of California asserts that drawings of Rembrandt, Lancret, and other well-known artists were in her family possession before 1938 when they were allegedly stolen from the collection of Arthur Feldmann. The court held that the communications between the parties were sufficient to fulfil the minimum contacts purposeful availment doctrines. Patty Gerstenblith and Lucille Roussin, The International Lawyer 41 (2007): 620.

14 NOVEMBER 2006

The German Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) decided that artworks that were expropriated by the Allies in July 1945 cannot be reclaimed by the former owner because he was a high-ranking Nazi official. Kunstrechtsspiegel 1 (2007):p. 32.

14 NOVEMBER 2006

A monumental copy of Amedeo Modigliani's (1884–1920) bronze statue Tête de Cariatide of 1911 was placed in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Sapienza in Rome, the location of the Archivio di Stato (State Archives). The statue was donated by Modigliani's nephew. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 4. At the same time the Archivio Amedeo Modigliani, which moved from Paris to Rome, was inaugurated. ARTnews, September 2006, p. 82.

14 NOVEMBER 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai” at the Getty Foundation in Malibu, California. The St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai loaned 43 of its precious icons to the Getty foundation. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 32.

16 NOVEMBER 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Laocoonte. Alle origini dei Musei Vaticani” celebrating the discovery of the statue Laokoon 500 years ago and the foundation of the Vatican Museums at the same time. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 17–18 February 2007, p. 17; Il Giornale dell'Arte, November 2006, p. 32.

16 NOVEMBER 2006

The National History Museum in London repatriated 17 ancestors of Tasmanian aborigines to Tasmania and the approximately 2000 people of Tasmanian aboriginal descent alive today. Museums journal February 2007, p. 18; The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 25.

17 NOVEMBER 2006

Auction at Christie's of London. The Museum of Bury near Manchester wanted to sell a painting of L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) and thereby created a hot debate on the problem of deaccession of artworks of British museums. Deaccession was called cultural vandalism. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 17 November 2006, p. 25.

17 NOVEMBER 2006

The Musée national de la Légion d'honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie opened in Paris after having been closed for 5 years. Le Journal des Arts, 1–14 December 2006, p. 7.

18 NOVEMBER 2006

Three thousand artists, museum people, and art historians published an open protest against charging the French museum director and director general of cultural heritage Henry-Claude Cousseau for having organized in 2000 the exhibition “Présumés Innocents” in Bordeaux qualified by some people as pornographic. Le Journal des Arts, 15 December 2006–4 January 2007 p. 31 and 1–14 December 2006, p. 35; The Art Newspaper, January 2007, p. 19.

20 NOVEMBER 2006

German museum directors and art dealers met in the chancellor's office in Berlin discussing the return of art objects looted and confiscated during the Nazi period in Germany. The participants confirmed the Washington Principles of 1998 and urged more provenance research in German museums. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21 November 2006, p. 1; Die Zeit, 23 November 2006, p. 53.

21 NOVEMBER 2006

The Vienna auction house “Im Kinsky” sold a drawing by Egon Schiele, but the drawing had been identified as a looted object. Der Standard, 30 November 2006, p. 39.

21 NOVEMBER 2006

Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, announced that the Getty intends to return 26 objects from its antiquities collection to Italy, including 25 that were on a list of objects claimed by the Italian Ministry of Culture, and an additional object the Getty determined should be returned during its own research into Italian claims. It also advised the Ministry of Culture that it will continue its own research into the origin of the disputed Cult Statue of a Goddess, and, if this research suggests that the statue should be returned to Italy, the Getty is prepared to transfer the title. Press release of the Getty, November 21, 2006.

23 NOVEMBER 2006

The Italian Minister of Cultural Affairs Rutelli gave a press conference and demanded again the return of archaeological objects illegally excavated in and exported from Italy and acquired and held by the Getty Foundation. Il Giornale dell'Arte, January 2007, p. 6; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 25–26 November 2006, p. 14.

23 NOVEMBER 2006

At the closing of the exhibition of works of the Surrealist artist Hans Bellmer (1902–1973) at the Whitechapel Gallery in London the Galley was accused of self-censorship because some works of Bellmer exhibited in the Centre Pompidou in Paris were removed from display in London. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 6.

23–24 NOVEMBER 2006

A French delegation visited Abou Dhabi in order to discuss the plan for a museum in Abou Dhabi with French museums. Le Journal des Arts, 15 December 2006–4 January 2007, p. 3.

24 NOVEMBER 2006

The information portal “La Città del Restauro” (The City of Restoring) was presented for the first time in Florence (accessible at 〈firenzerestauro.it/portale/index.asp〉). Under this address professional restorers offer their advice, expertise, and engagement. Il Giornale dell'Arte, February 2007, p. 32.

28 NOVEMBER 2006

The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly postponed the vote on the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People because Namibia raised objections against it. Namibia and other countries doubt that the present form of the declaration is clear enough to prevent revolts of independence and self-determination. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 30 November 2006, p. 4.

28 NOVEMBER 2006

French police intervened because the son of a deceased French archaeologist offered in the internet a lock of Ramses II for €2000 to €2500 and the superintendent of Egyptian antiquities Zahi Hawass complained that this lock must have been taken by French scientists when they had the mummy of Ramses II in France for scientific research. Le Journal des Arts, 15 December 2006–4 January 2007, p. 5.

28 NOVEMBER 2006

The Museum of Modern Art's Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building opened, marking the final phase of the institution's 6-year, $850 million expansion and renovation. Jason Edward Kaufman, The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 13; Il Giornale dell'Arte, February 2007, p. 42.

28 NOVEMBER 2006

The County Court Berlin (Landgericht Berlin) decided the copyright dispute between the architects Meinhard von Gerkan and Jürgen Hillmer and the defendant Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) in favor of the architect who designed the new Berlin Central Station (Az. 16 O 240/05). He had complained that the defendant altered the accepted design of the ground floor of the station for long distance trains and installed a simple flat ceiling instead of a beautiful vaulted ceiling. This was qualified as a violation of the plaintiff's copyright. Zeitschrift für Urheber- und Medienrecht 2007, p. 424; Neue Zeitschrift für Bau- und Vergaberecht 2007, p. 324; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 30 November 2006, p. 15.

29 NOVEMBER 2006

The House of Lords discussed the bill on the protection of cultural objects on loan by granting immunity from seizure to these objects. Art Antiquity and Law XI (2006): 389–398 and the bill at p. 387–388.

30 NOVEMBER 2006

Exhibition of artworks looted during World War II and without any provenance are exhibited until February 5 in the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam under the title “Gerooft, maar van wie?” (Looted, but from whom?). The Dutch government asks everybody until April 4, 2007, to submit claims for return art, February 2007, p. 109; 〈http://www.mfa.nl/rom-nl/algemeen/niews/herkomstgezocht〉.

NOVEMBER 2006

The painting Niños en el carreton of Francesco de Goya (1746–1828) got lost on its way from the Toledo Museum of Art of Toledo, Ohio, to the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York. The painting is insured for $1 million. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 15 November 2006, p. 11; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 15 November 2006, p. 7.

NOVEMBER 2006

A lawsuit has been filed in Aargau, Switzerland, against the artist Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957) for having violated the copyright of Emma Kunz (1892–1963) by using copies of her paintings for his own installations. art, February 2007, p. 119.

NOVEMBER 2006

The Belgian State Authorities of Brussels classified 289 objects (e.g., works of Gustav Klimt and of the Wiener Werkstätten) in the Palais Stoclet in Brussels as protected cultural objects. The owners want to have the listing rescinded and want to sell the Palais. The Art Newspaper, April 2007, p. 9; The Art Newspaper, July/August 2006, p. 29.

NOVEMBER 2006

Austria published a database of art that was probably looted by the Nazis and is now held at Austrian museums. If no owner is found, the art objects have to be sold and the proceeds distributed to victims of the Nazi regime. The database is at 〈www.kunstrestitution.at〉. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 5.

NOVEMBER 2006

The Russian Culture Ministry ruled that museums can no longer authenticate works of art for dealers and commercial galleries. The decision deprives museums of a lucrative business, whereas many art dealers and experts claim that it throws the Russian art market into uncertainty and greater lawlessness. The ministry wants museums to stand outside the art market because commercial activities are a conflict of interest. John Varoli, The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 29.

NOVEMBER 2006

The Italian Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli threatens the Getty Foundation in Malibu with “a cultural embargo” if the Getty does not return archaeological objects illegally excavated in Italy and unlawfully exported to the United States. Available at 〈http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft〉 13 November 2006. The Getty foundation already agreed to return 26 objects. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 November 2006, p. 37; International Herald Tribune, 12 December 2006, p. 5.

NOVEMBER 2006

The National Gallery of London discovered the panel Venus and Amor as Thief of Honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) might be looted art acquired by the reporter Patricia Lochridge Hartwell from a Collecting Point in Germany after Word War II. The gallery is searching the former owner. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 28 November 2006, p. 44; art, February 2007, p. 118; The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 1 and 4 and January 2007,p. 8. The painting was later exhibited in the Courtauld Institute. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2 July 2007, p. 34.

NOVEMBER 2006

Objects stolen from the National Museum in Harare (Zimbabwe) in June 2006 were discovered in Poland, seized by Polish police, and will be returned to Harare. Tom Cremers, 〈museum-security@museum-security.org〉 of 11 December 2006.

NOVEMBER 2006

The exhibition “Glitter and Gloom” of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York showing portraits of the 1920s abstained from asking the Museum of Modern Art for the portrait of Max Herrmann-Neisse by George Grosz because it is subject to return claims by the heirs of a former German owner. As a substitute the Kunsthalle Mannheim in Germany lent another portrait of Herrmann Neisse by George Grosz to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17 November 2006, p. 39.

NOVEMBER 2006

Alastair Northedge, professor of art and Islamic archaeology at the University Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) vigorously pleaded for making Muslims more sensitive to their cultural heritage. Le Journal des Arts, 17–30 November 2006. p. 35.

NOVEMBER 2006

The German city of Leipzig refuses to return the library of the music publishing house Peters to the heirs of the former owner who was expropriated during the Nazi period and killed in Auschwitz. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 December 2006, p. 39.

NOVEMBER 2006

The Art Newspaper published an open letter of archaeologists to the government of Iraq expressing their concern for the present and future state of antiquities and cultural heritage in Iraq. The Art Newspaper, November 2006, p. 35.

NOVEMBER 2006

At an auction of the Swedish auction house Bukowski in Stockholm, it has been revealed that many second-rate paintings of Western Europe are turned into artworks of Russian artists to meet the demand of Russian collectors of Russian art. As to this Russification of paintings cp, art, November 2006, p. 135.

NOVEMBER 2006

The Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland), the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Main (Germany), and the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (cp supra at 20 September 2006) cooperated internationally and bought for about SFr. 7 million the Collection Ricke consisting of 152 pieces of contemporary art. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 30 November 2006, p. 27

NOVEMBER 2006

The Austrian government has returned to Marina Mahler, the granddaughter of the composer Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma Mahler (1879–1964), the Munch painting Summer Night on the Beach that has resided in the Vienna Gallery Belvedere since 1937. Alma Mahler had lent the painting to the museum in 1937, a year before she fled from the Nazis. Sharon Flescher, IFAR Journal 9 (1) (2006): 10–11; Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 19; Le Journal des Arts, 17–30 November 2006, p. 39.

NOVEMBER 2006

Two panels of the altarpiece of San Marco of Florence have been discovered in England. They are by Fra Angelico (1365/1400–1455) and were commissioned by Cosimo de Medici (1389–1464) one of the greatest art patrons in history, The panel was broken up during the Napoleonic Wars and the eight panels were scattered. Two of them are in the United States and four in Germany. The Times, 14 November 2006, p. 15, Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 13.

NOVEMBER 2006

The heirs of the collector Alfred Hess ask the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany, to return the paintings Kleine blaue Pferde by Franz Marc (1880–1916) and Barfüsserkirche by Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) because they have been sold during the Nazi period. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 November 2006, p. 35.

NOVEMBER 2006

The painting Market on Piazza Navona in Rome by Matthys Naiveu (1647–1721), formerly owned by the art dealer Max Stern, and the painting Finding of Small Erichthonios by the Daughters of Kekrops by Rubens (1577–1640), formerly owned by Victor Bloch, had to be withdrawn from auction by Van Ham and Lempertz in Cologne because the artworks are supposed to have been looted during the Nazi period. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 November 2006, p. 49.

NOVEMBER 2006

The flooding that devastated much of Central Thailand between late August and November has raised concerns for some of the country's most important historical monuments including two UNESCO World Heritage sites. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 31.

NOVEMBER 2006

The Dutch Institute for Cultural Heritage issued the Dutch guidelines for deaccessioning of museum objects. Museums Journal, March 2007, p. 16.

NOVEMBER 2006

Egyptian authorities try to evacuate the village Gurna, since ancient times home of tomb robbers, to move the population to New Gurna and to create an archaeological park at the site of Gurna. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 25–26 November 2006, p. 6.

4 DECEMBER 2006

James N. Wood, a respected former museum director (at the Art Institute of Chicago) has been named head of the J. Paul Getty Trust. ARTnews, January 2007, p. 48.

4 DECEMBER 2006

The United States and Bolivia decided to extend the agreement of 2001 on the support of exchange of cultural property for 5 years. 〈list@leidennetwork.com〉 of 11 January 2007.

4 DECEMBER 2006

The General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously adopted resolution A/61/L.15/Rev. 1 on the “Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin.” The member states expressed therein their concern about loss, destruction, illicit trafficking, and pillaging of cultural property. UNESCO Document CTL.2007/CONF.211/COM. 14/2, p. 7.

5 DECEMBER 2006

Sotheby's of Zürich sold the painting Thunersee mit Stockhornkette of Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) for 5.73 million Swiss franks to a Swiss collector. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 7 December 2006, p. 35.

5 DECEMBER 2006

The UNESCO drafted a resolution “Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin” and submitted it to the General Assembly of the United Nations. Available at 〈http://www.unesco.org〉.

6 DECEMBER 2006

The Musée Guimet in Paris opened the exhibition “Afghanistan: the Recovered Treasures. Collections of the Kabul Museum.” About 200 pieces of art have been sent abroad for the first time. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 52. The exhibition will then travel to Germany (Bonn), the Netherlands (Amsterdam), the United States (Houston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York), and perhaps also to Japan. The Art Newspaper, January 2007, p. 4; Le Journal des Arts, 5–18 January 2007, p. 8.

7–10 DECEMBER 2006

The Art Basel Miami Beach exhibited in the convention center in Miami. Le Journal des Arts, 1–14 December 2006, p. 25.

7 DECEMBER 2006

The film The Rape of Europe on the systematic Nazi plundering of cultural objects throughout Europe is shown the first time. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 41.

8 DECEMBER 2006

Robert Volpe, who as the New York Police Department's first art detective recovered millions of dollars' worth stolen works, died at his home on Staten Island, New York, at the age of 63. ARTnews, February 2007, p. 58.

8 DECEMBER 2006

The exhibition “Whistler in Russia” opened in Moscow at the State Tretyakov Gallery exhibiting 24 Whistler paintings mostly from British and American public collections alongside with paintings by Russian artists who either influenced or were influenced by the American-born artist James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903). Whistler lived in St. Petersburg from 1843–1879. The State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg refused to loan key Russian paintings to the show in Moscow and cancelled the show, which should have travelled to St. Petersburg in February. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, January 2007, p. 23.

9–10 DECEMBER 2006

Opening of the new building of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. International Herald Tribune, 9–10 December 2006, p. 10.

11 DECEMBER 2006

The Greek minister of culture Georgios Voulgarakis and the director of the J. Paul Getty Museum Dr. Michael Brand issued this statement:

Press release of the Getty of December 11, 2006; ARTnews, February 2007, p. 66; The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 10 and December 2006, p. 13 and January 2007, p. 14; ARTnewsletter XXXII (9 January 2007): 7.

11 DECEMBER 2006

Sotheby's of London sold the painting View of Tinherir by Winston Churchill (1874–1965) for £612.800. This is the highest price of a painting of this hobby painter. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 December 2006, p. 9.

11 DECEMBER 2006

The governor of Bavaria (Ministerpräsident) Stoiber promised to lend the crown of King Henry II for an exhibition in Bamberg. Now there is a dispute whether the crown, formerly part of the treasury of the Cathedral of Bamberg and since 1802 to 1804 deposited in Munich, should be returned to Bamberg, the center of Franconia, Bavaria. There are also interstate problems of displaced cultural objects. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 15. December 2006, p. 41.

12 DECEMBER 2006

The European Parliament and the Council issued in codified version the Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights. It confirms that the rights of an author of a literary or artistic work shall run for the life of the author and for 70 years after his death. Official Journal of the European Union L 372 (27 December 2006): 12.

12 DECEMBER 2006

Decision No. 1903/2006/EC of the European Parliament and the Council establishing the Culture Programme 2007 to 2013. The decision, also inviting the Member States of the European Free Trade Area and the European Economic Region, encourages and subsidizes cooperation of already existing cultural institutions and the creation of new cultural activities. Official Gazette EU L 378 (27 December 2006): 22.

12 DECEMBER 2006

Edemar Cid Ferreira, a former president of the São Paulo Biennial, was taken into custody following his sentencing by the Federal High Court of Justice for bank fraud and money laundering. The Art Newspaper, February 2007, p. 1.

13 DECEMBER 2006

The French daily Le Monde published an appeal of French art historians against the new policy of making long-term loans of works of art of the Louvre to foreign museums in Atlanta, Georgia, Abu Dhabi and other places. The Art Newspaper, September 2006, p. 21; and February 2007, pp. 21 and 30; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9 January 2007, p. 33; and 8 February 2007, p. 33; Il Giornale dell'Arte, January 2007, p. 37 and February 2007, p. 12; art, March 2007, p. 127; ARTnews, March 2007, p. 74–76 and May 2007, p. 82; Museums Journal, June 2007, p. 34.

13–15 DECEMBER 2006

Museum directors from five continents arrived in Rome to celebrate with Francesco Buranelli, director of the Musei Vaticani, the 500th anniversary of the Vatican collections (started by Pope Julius II. 1503–1513) and to discuss the role of museums in modern times. Il Giornale dell'Arte, January 2007, p. 12.

13 DECEMBER 2006

The painting Friedenszeit by Carl Spitzweg (1808–1885), stolen in Mannheim Art Gallery in March 2006, has been recovered. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 15 December 2006, p. 43.

14–16 DECEMBER 2006

The international conference “Beni culturali on line. La sfida dell'accessibilità” (Cultural Goods online. The challenge of Accessibility) took place in Florence. Supported by the Italian government, Italian regions and provinces, private foundations, financial institutions and the European Commission, art works should be made accessible online and registered for reasons of protection, conservation and information. Il Giornale dell'Arte, February 2007, p. 13.

15 DECEMBER 2006

The assistant director-general for culture of the UNESCO wrote a letter to all Ministers of UNESCO Member States and Associate Members notifying these Ministers that the Secretariat of UNESCO established the database “UNESCO Cultural Heritage Laws Database” (〈www.unesco.org/culture/natlaws〉) and reminding them to submit information about national legislation concerning the protection of cultural property.

16 DECEMBER 2006

Opening of an exhibition “Istanbul—the City and the Sultan” in Amsterdam, The Nieuwe Kerk. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22 February 2007, p. 35.

16 DECEMBER 2006

Opening of the exhibition “Béhanzin, King of Abomey” at the Zinsou Foundation of Cotonou, Republic of Benin (Africa). King Béhanzin (ca. 1844–1906) was King of Abomey, capital of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey which later became the French colony Dahomey established in about 1625. One hundred years after the King's death, the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, lent several of the artifacts taken from Dahomeys to France for the exhibition. Bernard Müller, Le Monde diplomatique (German edition), July 2007, p. 19.

17–18 DECEMBER 2006

About 300 shepherds of the crib of the church San Nicola in Naples have been stolen. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 19 December 2006, p. 7.

18 DECEMBER 2006

The National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia, Italy, opened 19 new rooms for 3000 masterpieces of art from the 15th to nineteenth century. Le Journal des Arts, 2–25 January 2007, p. 7.

18 DECEMBER 2006

At Christie's in London a magnificent Meissen lion and lioness, from around 1732 by master ceramicist Johann Gottlob Kirchner, were sold for $5.5 million. The figures were sold by the Royal House of Saxony after having successfully secured their return as works of art appropriated by the Communist East Germany regime in September 2006. The Art Newspaper, January 2007, p. 43; Il Giornale dell'Arte, February 2007, p. 61.

19 DECEMBER 2006

The Archaeological Institute of America expressed its strong support for the request by the Government of Cyprus to renew the U.S.-Cyprus Memorandum of Understanding imposing import restrictions on Classical and pre-Classical archaeological materials and on Byzantine ecclesiastical material from Cyprus under article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Available at 〈http://www.archaeological.org〉 under Archaeological watch (19 December 2006).

21 DECEMBER 2006

The medical school of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia owned the painting The Gross Clinic (an update of Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp) by Thomas Eakins (1844–1916). The medical school agreed to sell the painting to the Arkansas museum founded by the Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the university gave Philadelphia institutions 45 days to match the offer of the buyers. When the painting was offered for sale there was an outcry that a painting deeply associated with Philadelphia's history would be lost. Finally, the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (where Eakins taught since 1876) matched the offer and saved the painting for Philadelphia. The Art Newspaper, February 2007, p. 15; ARTnews, February 2007, p. 56. On books on Eakins cp. LIV The New York Book Review, 5 (March 29, 2007): 29; Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 26 November 2006, p. 69; ARTnewsletter XXXII (9 January 2007): 3.

22 DECEMBER 2006

The Palazzo Nobiliare in the Villa Torlonia, Rome, was inaugurated and the Collezione Torlonia opened to the public. Also, the Villa Torlonia will be renovated. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 46.

27 DECEMBER 2006

Switzerland concluded the second agreement on return of illegally exported cultural objects with Peru, especially covering archaeological objects. Such agreements are necessary under the Swiss Federal Act on the International Transfer of Cultural Property, the Swiss implementation act of the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 30–31 December 2006, p. 33. The first agreement was stipulated with Italy on 20 October 2006.

DECEMBER 2006

The Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum of Braunschweig in Germany returned a Tiepolo painting to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker of the Netherlands. The painting was looted during the Nazi period and discovered by the provenance researches of the museum Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 December 2006, p. 37.

DECEMBER 2006

Dina Gottliebova Babbitt who survived in Auschwitz-Birkenau because she was ordered to paint Sinti and Roma prisoners is still fighting to get back her paintings exhibited in Auschwitz, Poland. ART, November 2006, p. 135; The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 5.

DECEMBER 2006

The Kunsthalle Bremen returned the painting Madonna with Child of an Italian artist of the Bartolomeo Vivarini circle (late 15th century) to the heirs of Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer and bought it back for €40,000. The painting was sold at auction in 1935. Kunstrechtsspiegel 1 (2007): 30.

DECEMBER 2006

The painting Nadja of Emil Nolde (1887–1956), stolen 30 years ago, has been discovered on the attic of the father of the alleged thief. art, February 2007, p. 112.

DECEMBER 2006

The French Le Journal des Arts published the annual account of activities of patrons in France during the year 2006 and listed examples of valuable contributions of patrons to the acquisition and restoration of art works. Le Journal des Arts, 15 December 2006–4 January 2007, pp. 15–20.

DECEMBER 2006

The Museo Barracco in Rome reopened after 5 years of restoration of the palazzo Farnesina dei Baullari close to the Piazza Navona. The museum exhibits the collection of archaeologist Giovanni Barracco (1829–1914) donated to the City of Rome in 1902 and preserves also the library of Ludwig Pollak (1868–1943), art historian and art dealer in Rome. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 54.

DECEMBER 2006

In Italy there are serious complaints about the situation in Pompeii and the presentation of the excavations to the public and the care for tourists. Il Giornale dell'Arte, December 2006, p. 40.

DECEMBER 2006

The National Maritime Museum in London revealed that it holds the painting Wreath in the North Sea in Memory of the Battle of Juetland by Claus Bergen (1885–1964) looted 1945 by British troops from the German Mürwik Naval Academy on the Baltic Coast. There is a debate whether it should be returned and can be deaccessioned. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, January 2007, pp. 1, 8.

DECEMBER 2006

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London decided to stop charging fees for the reproduction of images from its collection in scholarly or educational publications. The English Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) intends to require that whenever a museum or gallery accepts a grant toward an acquisition, it will allow the work to be reproduced without payment in scholarly books and magazines. The Art Newspaper, January 2007. p. 1.

DECEMBER 2006

The Dutch researcher Jos van Beurden claimed that antiquities are being smuggled by embassy staff both in Afghanistan and elsewhere. He concludes that there is sufficient evidence that the diplomatic bag is abused for smuggling and that diplomats are a bigger danger for antiquities than tourists. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, January 2007, p. 5.

DECEMBER 2006

Willi Korte (historian and lawyer) and Mark Masurovsky (art restitution expert) draw the attention the lack of funding and cooperation with respect to looted art and art objects of Holocaust victims and the resulting injustice. The Art Newspaper, December 2006, p. 32.

DECEMBER 2006

The Austrian city of Krems denied a request to restitute the two paintings Saint Florian and Saint John of Martin Johann Schmidt, known as Kremser-Schmidt (1718–1801) of the former collection of Richard Neumann, prominent textile industrialist, to Neumann's Boston-based grandson Thomas Selldorff. The paintings were seized by the Nazis in 1938. The Austrian Art Restitution Act of 1998 does not apply to property owned by provinces or municipalities. ARTnews, March 2007, p. 82.

DECEMBER 2006

The legislation in Taiwan plans to change the charter of the Taipei National Palace Museum into a general museum not only devoted to Chinese art. ARTnews, May 2007, p. 86; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Internationale Ausgabe, 12 June 2007, p. 5.

DECEMBER 2006

Conference of art historians in Bonn, Germany celebrating the fifth centenary of the discovery of the Laokoon sculpture in Rome on 14 January 1506. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 December 2006, p. N3.