Now that the world’s renewed focus on the Holocaust and, in particular, Nazi-looted art is about ten years old, I thought it would be helpful to share with UIA members the particular aspects of litigation in this area that have developed in the United States. My law firm has been involved in many claims brought on behalf of the heirs of Holocaust victims so I believe we may have a particularly beneficial vantage point from which to report on relevant developments. But I think that perhaps the best use of this paper would be to review some of the basic tenets of law that arise regularly in these cases in the United States and to focus on one case that not only, in the view of many observers, substantially contributed to focusing the world’s attention upon the problem of Nazi-looted art, but is still pending in court today: United States v. Portrait of Wally. This case raises a host of interesting issues including the role of the United States Government in these types of cases.
