association of lawyers

recovery of looted art hello my name is kian fathieh. i am a german lawyer.i`m a registered lawyer in germany. my law firm is situated near bismarckplatz,opposite the carrã© shopping mall. bismarckplatz is one of the main traffic junctions in thedowntown area of the university town of heidelberg. my office is easily accessible on the highwayfrom many cities in germany such as mannheim, stuttgart, frankfurt and karlsruhe. in myvideo today, i want to talk to you about the recovery of looted art. i am member of the institute of art and lawassociation. i am also a member of the german israeli

lawyers association. there has been a keen public interest in thelegal issues surrounding looted art generated by the case known as the gurlitt case. on10th november 2013, i was quoted in an article in a major national newspaper, thefrankfurter allgemeine sonntagszeitung, in the article “the treasure and its guardian”,after i had previously been interviewed in the same newspaper on the subject of restitutionof looted art. on 4th november 2013, i was also quoted in the sã¤chsische zeitung, amajor regional german newspaper. this was on the subject of the gurlitt case. in addition, in december2014, an article that i wrote on the gurlitt case and on the subject looted art waspublished in the german km-magazine - culture and management

in dialogue on the pages 21 until 23. the km-magazinereported that it had at that time more than 22,000 subscribers. in my legal opinion, based on the currentlegal situation in germany, it is possible to reclaim and obtain works of art which are known as“looted art” and which were taken as a result of persecution under national socialism,even if they are currently in private ownership. my interpretation of the legal situation isthat there is no loss of property rights in the case of looted art. there is a substantiallegal case to argue that anyone in possession of looted art who applies the statute of limitationsto a claim for restitution is in violation of the principle of good faith. any heirsor persecuted people who had art work taken

from them under national socialism shouldalways seek the advice of a lawyer with expertise in this area, and, depending on the legalsituation, also consider seeking a settlement. in any event, there should be an initial consultationwith a lawyer. media reports about the gurlitt case havepublicized the compensation awarded to the flechtheim heirs with respect to the painting“the lion tamer”. this compensation, that was reported in the media, shows that it canbe extremely financially beneficial for heirs of looted art to seek legal advice. the pressreports indicate that cornelius gurlitt and the lawyer representing the flechtheim heirsagreed a settlement which divided the proceeds from the painting “the lion tamer”. thepicture was auctioned in late 2012 in the

city of cologne for eur 864,000.00. at thetime, there was no explanation as to how the picture by max beck had come into the possessionof cornelius gurlitt’s father. it is not at all uncommon for settlements to be reachedfor these kinds of art works, depending on the nature of the case. however, before reachingsuch a settlement, it is always essential to take expert legal advice from an attorney.general information, including this video, cannot replace individual legal advice. the number displayed below will put you incontact with one of the law firm’s administrative staff and they will be happy to arrange alegal consultation for you. as my time is limited, i’m afraid it isnot possible to accept every case.

it is also possible to arrange meetings withclients from the uk, the usa, australia, canada and israel using skype. thank you for watching.