[MSN] conference in Budapest

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Dear Ton Cremer, would you put this on the MSN mailing?

I send you 2 versions, you could choose which is better for MSN readers:
Sincerely Eva Hajdu


1. 

The Institute of Art and Law organizes a conference in October 4th-6th, Budapest:

ANTI-SEIZURE AND LEGAL IMMUNITY:

the Safeguarding of Works of Art on Loan within the European Union and Beyond

in association with the Art-Law Centre Geneva and

the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest

 

This seminar will look at what is perhaps the most important aspect of the crucial modern issue of art mobility within Europe and the wider museum community - the growth of national statutes that guarantee immunity from legal action to works of art on loan.  In particular it will look in depth at the countries that already have anti-seizure laws and the standards that new anti-seizure laws must satisfy to be effective and ethically acceptable.  Representatives from over ten individual countries, including the US, Italy, Poland, Australia, France, Germany and Hungary will speak on the first day, and the second day will be given over to workshops covering such central issues as anti-seizure and human rights, anti-seizure and state immunity and the range of liabilities covered by anti-seizure legislation.  Speakers include Sabine Gimbrere, Charles Goldstein, Mario Bondioli-Osio, Professor Pierre Lalive, Shoshana Berman, Marc-Andre Renold, Professor Norman Palmer, Marie Cornu and Henrietta Galambos.  The conference begins with an opening reception on the night of 4th October.  The conference fee is: €500/£338/US$644 (€400/£272/US$515 for members of the Institute of Art and Law or of the Art-Law Centre Geneva). 

Contact in Budapest: Eva Hajdu e-mail: hajdu.eva at t-online.hu; Institute of Art and Law  e-mail: c.warrington at ial.co.uk





The subject matter of this seminar is vital to everyone involved in art loans, the promotion of cultural exchange and the legal security of museum collections, including museum officials, insurers, government authorities and lawyers.



2.



The Budapest Series of 

The Institute of Art and Law Conferences

I. 

Immunity from seizure

 

 

Works by Renoir, Manet, Degas, Monet, van Gogh, Gauguin and other French masters from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts – insured for US$1bn – were seized in Switzerland in November 2005. Canton of Valais authorities acted on the request of the Swiss-based Noga trading company and its owners the Gaon family to secure payment of up to US$900m after a 1993 food-for-oil deal with a Russian ministry went wrong. Within 24 hours, to avoid upsetting ties with Moscow, the Swiss government ordered the immediate released of the works. Noga received no benefit from the adventure, but – as The Guardian wrote –

the multimillion-dollar legal battle threatens chaos in art world, as museums may now halt the loaning of treasures. 

 

Museums are a link between Europe’s heritage and the citizens of today and tomorrow. The museum collections of Europe are, first and foremost, one of society’s common assets. It is therefore important to safeguard them, but also to make them available to society as much as possible. For museums to lend their collections to other museums, both in the same country and abroad, is considered one of their most important tasks.[1] 

 

During the Netherlands Presidency of the European Union, the Council adopted resolution 13839/04 on the working plan for Culture 2005 – 2006, which focused on five priority areas for the years 2005 and 2006. The mobility of art collections and exhibitions has been identified as one of the priority areas. Based on the findings of an expert study surveying national systems of public indemnity guarantees relating to exhibitions in 31 European countries[2] and on the outcome of the Museum Collections on the Move[3] conference, the Council Presidency set up a working group of museum experts, under chairmanship of Ronald de Leeuw, director general of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, to advise on facilitating European collection mobility. A report, produced by the expert’s group, stresses the importance of establishing a good policy on immunity from seizure. 

 

Even more recently, in July 2006, the Helsinki Conference convened during the Finish Presidency of the EU has echoed and endorsed the need for Europe-wide legal and economic measures that promote the security of travelling art and, by so doing, enhance the cause of European cultural exchange. 

 

Immunity from seizure involves the legal protection that one state grants to an object on loan in its territory from another state within the context of a temporary exhibition. The purpose is to secure the object against any legal claims which might occur when a claimant takes advantage of the fact that the object is temporarily in a different country with a different set of laws from those of its normal location, and sues to seize or immobilise that object. The protection offered by immunity from seizure is normally granted for a specific period, i.e. the period of the exhibition, extended by the number of days necessary to prepare the exhibition. Since the most recent enlargement of the European Union, immunity from seizure has become even more important, particularly in view of the involuntary removal of objects around the

world since the Nazi era and the need to extend the advantages of a sharing of culture to new member states. 

 

The scope of measures intended to provide immunity from seizure is vast, as such measures can potentially cover not only all property disputes concerning the title to cultural objects but also all claims to enforce other debts owed by the lender of the cultural object in question, where the object may be merely one of a numerous class of assets that the creditor tries to seize to satisfy the debt. The risks related to the legal seizure of the goods cannot be comprehensively covered by an insurance policy. 

 

At present there is a great disparity between the various systems of immunity from seizure applied in the European Union and around the world. Many countries do not offer immunity from seizure at all. Those European countries that do are (within the EU) Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, and Ireland, and (outside the EU) Switzerland. Spain is currently considering such a measure. France was the first country in Europe to have introduced a system of immunity from seizure (1994). 

 

The American federal system of statutory immunity goes back to 1965, but this did not prevent an American judge from ordering in June 2006 the confiscation of the invaluable collection of Iranian artifacts that had lent decades earlier from Iran to the Oriental Institute of Chicago University, and their being put on auction to compensate Israeli families who lost members in a bomb explosion in Ben Yehuda Mall on Sept. 4, 1997 on the grounds that Islamic Regime in Tehran sponsored terrorism. 

 

The risk of an object lent abroad being seized will obviously be very dissuasive for possible lenders. Such a risk can also throw up enormous problems (e.g. the refusal of a loan) for the organisers of an exhibition. Museum professionals have agreed that the introduction of a European system of immunity from seizure would support cultural exchanges and would also be simpler than having each state work out its own legislation, as there will inevitably be disparities between them, in particular as collection mobility increases and the number of exhibitions that tour several countries of Europe grows. 

 

Immunity from seizure is a problematic subject. Because of the complexity of the subject the Institute of Art and Law in association with the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest and the Art-Law Centre, Geneva has organised a conference titled: “Anti-seizure and legal immunity the safeguarding of cultural objects on loan within the European Union and beyond” which will take place on 4th-6th October 2006, in Budapest.

 

The aim of this Conference is to introduce the various systems of immunity from seizure currently applied, analyse the American system, which – as the oldest such system – will offer the greatest number of practical examples, and give voice to the wishes of those European countries that do not yet have anti-seizure laws. The Conference will conclude with precise resolutions as to the content and development of any future anti-seizure law, which may take the form of a standardised European system of immunity from seizure. 

 

Contact:                                                                    Organiser in Budapest:

Professor Norman Palmer                                                       Eva Hajdu                  

c/o Institute of Art and Law                                         e-mail: hajdu.eva at t-online.hu

e-mail: c.warrington at ial.co.uk

tel: +44 116 253 8888



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[1] Based on the Report of”Lending to Europe” expert group set up by Council resolution 13839/04.

[2] Study no. 2003-4879 - An inventory of national systems of public guarantees in 31 European countries (June 2004).

[3] The Hague, Netherlands, 28 - 29 October 2004, www.museumcollectionsonthemove.org