Event Type 2: Business & Professional

Please join us in Lawrence at the University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art for an art law presentation featuring Raymond Dowd! Ray has been featured in various national news publications recently for his work on Holocaust restitution cases.

• Were These Artworks Looted? After Seizures and Lawsuits, Some Still Debate
• Schiele Artworks Returned to Heirs of Owner Killed by Nazis

This evening event will kick off with an hour “Intro To Art Law” featuring panelists M.H.Hoeflich, Distinguished Professor of Law at University of Kansas School of Law and Kelly Anders. A broad array of Panelists will participate in this unique, fascinating event.

This will be followed by Mr. Dowd’s presentation From Murder To Museums: Current Controversies Over Nazi-Looted Art in which he recounts epic legal battles including the seizure of two stolen Schieles spotted at the Salon+Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory in November 2015. The seizure and return of the artworks garnered international headlines upon their restitution to the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum, a Viennese cabaret artist who was murdered in the Dachau Concentration Camp. The Schieles are now at Christie’s while Grunbaum’s heirs continue to fight the London art dealers’ appeals.

The presentation traces Abraham Lincoln’s idea of taking the profit out of war through the Lieber Code Executive Order 100 of April 1863, to the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, to the Nuremberg Trials, demonstrating that returning stolen property to Holocaust victims is consistent with American ideals and foreign policy.

Dowd discusses how 1. Confiscatory US tax laws, 2. A fair market value deduction for artworks donated to museums, and 3. An unwillingness of museums to look gift horses in the mouth led to the current situation: US museums with large inventories of unprovenanced works that left Europe after 1933, but were created prior to 1946. History’s greatest robbery has long been concealed by history’s greatest murder, Congress passing the HEAR Act of 2016 extended the statute of limitations for Nazi looted art claims and reaffirmed America’s commitment to righting an historic wrong.

We’ll conclude the evening with a reception in the museum. CLE credit pending in both KS & MO.

Event begins at 4:30 pm, registration will begin at 4:15 pm.

Contact Kate Simpson for details at kmarples@gmail.com.

RSVP NOW!

For directions and parking information please click here.

1. No food or drink in the galleries. 
2. We ask that all visitors keep large purses, bags and book bags in the storage carts behind the Welcome Desk or in our lockers just past the lobby area during their time in the galleries. 
3. Pencils are the only writing utensils allowed in the galleries, so please plan accordingly. 
4. If your students will be writing in the galleries, please urge them to use a clipboard (located in the coatroom), as opposed to using the walls or other surfaces at the SMA.  
5. Photography is permitted in the galleries, as long as guests do not use flash. 

  Lastly, please also be aware of the following: 

1.  In the event of an emergency, including natural disasters, visual and audible warning systems throughout the building will alert guests to danger and provide appropriate guidance. Emergency exit routes are posted throughout all KU buildings. The signs can be found near every stairwell, elevator, and exit on every floor of every building. 
2. Since July 2017, most buildings and facilities at the University of Kansas, including Spencer Museum of Art, are subject to the Kansas Personal and Family Protection Act, which allows most citizens 21 and older to carry concealed handguns unless adequate security measures are in place. The leadership and staff of the Spencer Museum take your safety very seriously and invite you to learn more athttps://concealedcarry.ku.edu/. 
3. There is not appropriate secure storage for handguns available at the Museum. Individuals who choose to carry a concealed handgun in a backpack or large bag must plan their day accordingly and conceal their handgun on their body or transfer their handgun to an approved secured storage device in their residence or locked vehicle before arriving to the Museum. 

Sponsored By:

FBA Federal Litigation Section
FBA Intellectual Property Law Section
Spencer Museum of Art