Welfenschatz: American court decides on the admissibility of the lawsuit
Press release from 03/31/2017
The action for the return of the Guelph Treasure was partially allowed by the U.S. District Court at first instance. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which had filed a motion to dismiss the action in its entirety as inadmissible, will now examine its further options.
In February 2015, a lawsuit for the return of the Guelph Treasure was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. (Philipp and Stiebel vs. Federal Republic of Germany and Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz). The SPK is of the opinion that this action does not belong before a U.S. court. It therefore filed a "Motion to Dismiss" to have the lawsuit dismissed. On 31 March 2017, the court granted this motion in some respects, but declared the action admissible in other respects.
"The SPK was and is of the opinion that this case does not belong before a U.S. court," said Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK. "We will take a close look at the decision and examine the next steps. Having thoroughly researched the historical facts and the background to the sale of the Guelph Treasure, we also believe that the lawsuit is also unfounded on the merits, as the 1935 sale was not a forced sale due to Nazi persecution."
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is strongly in favour of fair and just solutions for the restitution of Nazi-looted property. Since 1999, the SPK has processed more than 50 restitution requests and returned more than 350 works of art and more than 1,000 books to their rightful owners. These included a drawing by Vincent van Gogh, a work by Munch and "The Watzmann" by Caspar David Friedrich. In total, German museums and institutions have returned more than 14,300 objects as Nazi-looted art.
The question of whether the Guelph Treasure is Nazi-looted art has already been heard by the German "Advisory Commission", which concluded in 2014 that it could not recommend its return. The SPK is being represented in the US proceedings by the law firm Wiggin and Dana.
About the restitution proceedings
In 2008, a number of claimants - who claim to be the heirs of some of the companies that were part of the consortium - contacted the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which owns the Guelph Treasure and exhibits it in the Museum of Decorative Arts of the National Museums in Berlin. The claimants, which included the current plaintiffs, argued that the sale of the Guelph Treasure had taken place under duress.
The SPK conducted an intensive investigation into the circumstances of the 1935 sale. In line with its policy of transparency, it shared its findings and the historical documents supporting them in extensive correspondence with the claimants. Based on the results of its investigations, the SPK came to the conclusion that the sale in 1935 had been voluntary and that a fair market price had been realised, which is why restitution of the Guelph Treasure would not be appropriate.
In 2012, the SPK and the claimants at the time, including the current claimants, jointly convened the "Advisory Commission in connection with the restitution of cultural assets seized as a result of Nazi persecution, in particular from Jewish ownership" in the Welfenschatz case. In 2014, the Commission, chaired by Jutta Limbach (†), came to the same conclusion as the SPK that the sale in 1935 was not a forced sale due to persecution and that it could therefore not recommend restitution. It stated: "Although the Commission is aware of the difficult fate of the art dealers and their persecution during the Nazi era, there is no evidence to suggest that the art dealers and their business partners in the specific case to be assessed by the Advisory Commission were put under pressure in the negotiations - for example by Göring [...]."
Results of the SPK's provenance research on the sale of the Guelph Treasure in 1935
In 1929, a consortium of successful art dealers from Frankfurt formed to buy a collection of medieval ecclesiastical German treasures from the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which had belonged to the House of Guelph since the 17th century. The collection, known as the Welfenschatz, was originally the reliquary of today's Brunswick Cathedral. The consortium planned to sell the Guelph Treasure on at a profit. A few weeks after paying a high price for the collection, the US stock market collapsed, leading to the global economic crisis that lasted for several years. Art prices fell with the stock market prices. The consortium had invested a fortune in the hope of making a substantial profit, but was unable to find buyers for the entire collection.
The consortium contacted museums and collectors in the United States of America, Germany and the rest of Europe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It even arranged a tour of the collection around the U.S. After having to abandon its original hope of selling the collection in its entirety, the consortium began to sell individual objects from it. The buyers were collectors and museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art. After the Consortium had sold those parts of the Guelph Treasure for which it could find buyers, it brought the rest of the Guelph Treasure to Amsterdam while the Great Depression continued.
Almost two years later, the consortium entered into negotiations with a German bank that was interested in acquiring the remaining part of the Guelph Treasure for an unnamed client. Both sides submitted initial offers, and after extensive negotiations, the consortium and the bank agreed on a purchase price that was roughly in the middle of their original offers. The sales contract was signed on 14 June 1935. The consortium received what had been contractually agreed. The sale was not called into question for the next 70 years.