Is Litigation the Best Way to Resolve Ownership Disputes Over Art?



April 28, 2009 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Harris School of Public Policy Studies, 1155 E. 60th Street, Room 140C

Jeremy G. Epstein, University of Chicago Law School and Shearman and Sterling, LLC

Two of the landmark cases involving ownership of works of art displaced during World War II, Kunstsummlungen zu Weimar v. Elicofon and DeWeerth v. Baldinger, took 13 and 11 years, respectively, before reaching final judgment. A dispute over an Egon Schiele piece imported by the Museum of Modern Art for an exhibition began in 1998 and is still ongoing. Although it was never litigated, the dispute over the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s purchase of the Euphronius krater took decades to resolve.

  • Does this make sense?
  • If not, is there a better way to resolve such controversies?

Jeremy G. Epstein is a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and a partner in the Litigation Group at Shearman & Sterling, where his practice includes mergers and acquisitions, securities, antitrust, criminal defense, and litigation involving the fine arts. He has represented clients in the art world for over 30 years, including museums (among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Museum), dealers in New York, London, and Switzerland and collectors. He holds B.A. degrees from Columbia College and Cambridge University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He served as Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, from 1974-1978, and as Law Clerk to Hon. Arnold Bauman, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, from 1972-1974. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has served as a director of: The Legal Aid Society, The Fund for Modern Courts, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, City Bar Justice Center, and The Columbia College Alumni Association.