Commission for Art recovery

CASES AND RECOVERY EXPERIENCE

Germany: Westfeld Heirs Sue Germany in U.S. Court

A lawsuit brought October 3, 2008 in federal court in Tennessee against the Federal Republic of Germany as successor to the Nazi government that ruled Germany from 1933-1945 was dismissed in summer of 2009. The heirs of Walter Westfeld sought monetary damages for the loss of the inventory of Westfeld's art dealership which was seized in Germany by the Third Reich. This is a new approach as it did not seek the return of the art whose current whereabouts is unknown and therefore is not specified in the complaint.

Plaintiff argued that the German government could be sued in the United States under an exception to the Foreign Sovereigns Immunity Act (FSIA). Judge Todd J. Campbell of Federal District Court rejected that argument in a Memorandum granting the Defendant's motion to dismiss. A key consideration was whether the Third Reich's seizure of the assets and their subsequent sale was a commercial activity that would provide an exception to the FSIA; the Court's analysis concluded it was not, that the seizure of assets was an act of the Third Reich as a state.