The district court in Washington recently ruled that the heirs of Baron Herzog Mora Lipot can sue Hungary for dozens of paintings that are in leading museums of this country. An attempt to reject Hungary 100,000,000th claim Herzog failed

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Annunciation Joachim. 1518
(one of the pictures, which restitution
require heirs Mora Lipot Herzog )
Source: artinvestment.ru

federal court in Washington on Thursday ruled that the heirs of Baron Herzog Mora Lipot have the right to sue for tens of Hungary paintings confiscated from wealthy collector of the Hungarian pro-fascist government during World War II. Descendants of Herzog's twenty years of fighting for the return of these works, the total cost exceeds $ 100 million. Last July, they asked the U.S. Supreme Court, demanding the restitution in Hungary more than 40 works of art, including paintings by El Greco, Francisco de Zurbaran, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Velasquez , Camille Corot and Gustave Courbet . These paintings adorn the meeting of leading public cultural institutions of this country - the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest Fine Arts Museum, Museum of Applied Arts and the Budapest University of Technology.

However, Hungary in February this year, formally requested to close the case on the grounds that a foreign state enjoys immunity against lawsuits U.S. courts . The Government of the Republic of Hungary referred to the U.S. law on the immunity of foreign states (US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, FSIA). However, this law is a caveat: you can sue when it comes to property, "contrary to international law selected ". This characterization certainly applies to the actions of pro-fascist Hungarian government of the 1940s.

District Court Judge Ellen Segal in Washington Huvell (Ellen Segal Huvelle) held that the heirs brought" substantial and reasonable "arguments in favor of the Hungarian authorities violated international law, taking pictures, which means that the current government can not be exempted from legal liability, even under the law of immunity.

There are many reasons that allow governments to seize property from citizens, but in this case, as suggested by the Washington court, the Hungarian government has appropriated the property of Jews who were illegally deprived of their civil rights anti-Semitic decrees of that time.

One of the arguments of Hungary in an attempt to dismiss the heirs of a Act of State Doctrine, under which American courts can not challenge the state acts of foreign governments. Huvel However, the judge decided that when it comes to the actions of Nazi Germany and its allies during the Second World War II Act of State Doctrine is not taken into account.

However, Hungary allowed to reject some requests for pictures (eleven of forty pieces of work will be challenged to participate in a restorative process) on the basis that the court had already ruled in Hungary, which gives the state the right to keep themselves in these works.

Michael Schuster (Michael Shuster), lawyer Herzog heirs, said they were pleased with the decision of the Washington court: " The court rightly refused to Hungary in an attempt to ignore the truth, which in this case wholly on the side of plaintiffs. We are looking forward to when vskroyutsya shameful acts of the Hungarian government, refused to return confiscated from the family's work ».

Ambassador of Hungary Shtauber Tadeusz (Thaddeus Stauber) glad that eleven controversial works will remain in Hungary based on the earlier ruling by the Hungarian court:" The district court acknowledged the validity and legality of the decision of our courts, and we hope that the rights of the Republic of Hungary on other works also with time will be confirmed. We also expect that the appellate court accepts the fact that numerous international agreements and compensation programs have long been satisfied with any and all claims [heirs] in such works ».

The term" international agreement "means an agreement, Ambassador Shtauber 1973 between the Hungarian People's Republic of Korea and the United States, under which any claims in U.S. courts because of property obtained by Hungary until 1973, were banned. Magyars Americans paid 18.9 million dollars for ensuring that all claims against Hungary now has assumed the U.S. government and engaged in their own resolution. And by "compensatory programs" Tadeusz Shtauber understand some of the benefits the heirs of Baron Herzog, made by the U.S. government in 1955 by the American program to support people who lost their property.

However, the District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, rejected these arguments and Hungary. This means that Hungary will have to open the first public museum and archives and documents relating to the confiscation of works of art in the era of the Holocaust first be subjected to such scrutiny.

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Sources : artinvestment.ru