Lawsuits :

26 June 2019: Ruling of US Court of Appeals in Zuckerman v Metropolitan Museum of Art

On 26 June the United States Court of Appeals upheld a prior decision that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is the rightful owner of a Pablo Picasso painting The Actor (1904–05) which Laurel Zuckerman, the heir of Paul and Alice Leffmann, alleged had been sold under duress. In its decision, the court said that Zuckerman had waited too long before acting with her suit. “It is simply not plausible that the Leffmanns and their heirs would not have been able to seek replevin”—a legal term for an action involving the return of property—”of the Painting prior to 2010,” the decision reads. The court added that the HEAR Act, a commonly cited law in restitution cases allowing heirs of victims of Nazi persecution to reclaim art, did not apply because of the lapse in time.

To read the Court's ruling, click here.