Guelph Treasure restitution proceedings: Update
Press release from 07/12/2019
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) will appeal to the United States Supreme Court to dismiss the action for the return of the Guelph Treasure on the grounds that the American courts lack jurisdiction.
In February 2015, a lawsuit for the return of the Guelph Treasure was filed against the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) and the Federal Republic of Germany in a U.S. federal district court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C.(Philipp and Stiebel vs. Federal Republic of Germany and Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation).
The SPK is of the opinion that this action does not belong before a U.S. court and therefore requested that it be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. After the District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied the SPK's motion to dismiss, the SPK filed a motion to stay with the Court of Appeals on 24 June 2019, requesting that the proceedings not be pursued further, as the SPK (as previously announced) will now apply to the U.S. Supreme Court for a declaration that the action is inadmissible. Unlike under German law in comparable cases, an application to the U.S. Supreme Court for a decision on admissibility does not automatically mean that the proceedings on the merits will not be taken up.
The Court of Appeals rejected the motion to stay yesterday. As a result, the District Court is expected to begin taking evidence in the case soon, while the question of jurisdiction has not been conclusively clarified.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "We regret that the Court of Appeals has not waited to see whether the Supreme Court will address the fundamental question of whether an American court has jurisdiction over this action at all. The SPK was and is of the opinion that this case does not belong before a U.S. court, and we remain convinced that the lawsuit is also unfounded on the merits, as the sale of the Guelph Treasure in 1935 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 2,000 books to their rightful owners. These included a drawing by Vincent van Gogh, works by Munch and "The Watzmann" by Caspar David Friedrich.
SPK is represented in the U.S. proceedings by the law firm Wiggin and Dana.