• Letter from Wesley A. Fisher, Directory of Research, The Claims Conference to American Association of Museums (May 21, 2008)
• Letter from Ford M. Bell, President, American Association of Museums to Wesley A. Fisher, Director of Research, The Claims Conference (June, 19, 2008)
• Conference of the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM): February 2009, Venue: New York City
  "Provenance Research and CAJM Leadership: Not an Option, An Imperative", February 4, 2009
• Letter of Wesley A. Fisher, Director of Research, the Claims Conference, to the American Association of Museums (October 20, 2009)
• Abandoned Loan Bill Signed into Law: Written by Frank Lord and Yael Weitz (Art & Advocacy (a Herrick Feinstein Newsletter), Winter 2009)
• Whose Art Is It Anyway?: Written by Mari-Claudia Jimenez (Art & Advocacy (a Herrick Feinstein Newsletter), Winter 2009)
• "Museums and Ethics" Summer, 2010
  By Freda Matassa
  For more about Freda Matassa, click here
• Tensions are rising between the restitution community and U.S. museums over the proper way to handle Holocaust art claims by Robin Cembalest , ARTNews October 2010

MUSEUM ETHICS

Museum Ethics: Best Practices and Real Events

In recent years, museums in the United States began bringing suits against claimants to items in their collections. Instead of engaging in mutual and thorough provenance research, these museums are taking preemptive legal actions challenging claims and seeking judicial affirmation that the claims are invalid because of technicalities. For example, in 2006 the Toledo Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Art chose to file suit for "quiet title" to paintings by van Gogh and Gauguin being claimed by a community of heirs.

The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation followed with nearly an identical suit in 2008 in the Schoeps claim to paintings by Picasso. In 2009, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston won a judgment against a claimant who sought Oskar Kokoschka's Lovers. The museum's case was based on the statute of limitations and not on the merits.

These practices go against the American Association of Museums' guidelines, which clearly spell out the obligations of the museums to cooperate with claimants of Holocaust-Era Assets. While the practice to scare claimants with expensive litigation costs has a potential of deterring frivolous claims it also threatens those with legitimate claims from approaching museums even if they have no intention to bring lawsuits.