The MFA Houston Can Keep a Bellotto Painting That the Heirs of a Jewish Collector Say Is Rightfully Theirs, a Judge Has Ruled
The judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by heirs of a German Jewish collector.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston that called for Bernardo Bellotto’s Marketplace at Pirna (ca. 1764) to be returned to the heirs of Max Emden, a Jewish department store owner who sold it to Nazis in 1938.
The judge, Keith P. Ellison of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division, did not weigh in on whether the sale was made under duress, but found it could not be returned because of a legal technicality, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The ruling cited the Act of State doctrine, which prevents the court from overturning any legal decisions issued by a foreign government—even though both states have pledged to return property seized by the Nazis to its rightful heirs.
“It seems natural to ask why the mistake by the Dutch government would take priority over the Washington Principles. But it’s ultimately not the mistake that takes priority, but the fact that it was a ruling by a foreign state. So it comes down to balancing the Act of State Doctrine with the Washington Principles,” art and cultural heritage lawyer Leila Amineddoleh, who was not involved in the case, said in an email to Artnet News. “The Washington Principles are just that—principles that inform restitution decisions. However, the Act of State doctrine is a doctrine in U.S. law that dates back many centuries.”
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