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$35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

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Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#251
post #4

Back at home, Young had a problem: She was in possession of a looted piece of ancient art. She couldn't keep it. She couldn't sell it. And giving it back to its rightful owners was a lot harder than it sounds. “At that point, I realized I was probably going to need some help,” Young says. “I was probably going to need an attorney.” So she hired a lawyer in New York who specializes in international art law, Leila Amin…

There is nothing wrong with that

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#252
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Declaring war? not a war crime >Making a plan for war? not a war crime >Deportation? war crime. >Blowing stuff up? depends on what you blow up. >Stealing art? war crime.

> Declaring war? > Making a plan for war? These two are, on the stipulation that it's a war of aggression and not a defensive one.

Which is one of the reasons the US refuse to be subject to international tribunals on war crimes. No president would live to see their retirement as a free person.

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#253
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I doubt the Germans paid anybody when they took it from Italy. Why? The museum was not built by nazis.

germans were invading and pillaging a long time before Nazi's came to power and that is not unique to Germany - think Napoleon, so it is more likely than not that it was simply stolen, perhaps repeatedly over a couple thousand years.

> germans were invading and pillaging

Ludwig I of Bavaria never invaded Italy but he did frequently travel there for pleasure, and was known for purchasing antiquities and art.

> so it is more likely than not that it was simply stolen

You really have little rational basis for this belief. Could it have been stolen? Sure, maybe by Ludwig or maybe by whichever Italian sold it to Ludwig, or maybe by the great-great-great-great-grandfather of whoever sold it to Ludwig. But "more likely than not" stolen by Ludwig? Such confidence is merely a reflection of your biases.

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#254

The Germans don't really have any more right to it than she does. The most likely story of this bust is from the 5th century until the 18th or 19th centuries, it was buried in the ground somewhere in Italy or former Roman empire. The person who dug it up and sold it didn't really have an inherent right to it. They just found it. I say all this not from a legal perspective but from an inheritors of history and culture…

> The person who dug it up and sold it didn't really have an inherent right to it. They just found it. I don't get it. Why wouldn't a person who found it have a right to it?

Not Italy, but as an example, the legal process for the UK is described here:

https://www.gov.uk/treasure

I'd assume other European countries have similar laws and processes.

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She specifically stated this in her article, > She was in possession of a looted piece of ancient art. She couldn't keep it. She couldn't sell it. And giving it back to its rightful owners was a lot harder than it sounds. Why are you building up a false narrative?

The art was looted far before it ever came into that museum's possession.

Why do you think you know that? If an Italian noble finds a marble head when digging out a wine cellar on his own property and keeps it for himself, is that looting? That depends entirely on what the local laws said about such artifacts at the time. You don't know who first found it. You don't know where it was found, and when. You don't even know it was buried in the first place; it might have been privately owned the entire time since it was originally carved, passed along for two thousand years through innumerable legitimate private sales.

Here are some things you could know, if you bothered to read up on the matter: Ludwig I never invaded Italy, never sacked Rome, but did visit Italy as was the fashion of anybody in Europe who had the means to do so. He is known to have purchased numerous artifacts and works of art from wealthy Italian collectors and dealers, which might include this bust.

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#256
post #8
post #4

Back at home, Young had a problem: She was in possession of a looted piece of ancient art. She couldn't keep it. She couldn't sell it. And giving it back to its rightful owners was a lot harder than it sounds. “At that point, I realized I was probably going to need some help,” Young says. “I was probably going to need an attorney.” So she hired a lawyer in New York who specializes in international art law, Leila Amin…

"I'm not a lawyer and I don't understand international law, but despite that (lack of) knowledge I'm going to assume to assume this person was trying to do a bad thing"

Per the article, she is an antiquities dealer who specializes in looking for treasures at thrift stores. So generally speaking she is absolutely looking for a payout. We don't know what terms she negotiated this time, per the article those terms are confidential, but we do know that whatever she negotiated was not a simple return. The article says this much of it: "The exact terms of the deal are confidential, but the head will stay in Texas — on display — for about a year."

But supposing she was looking for a payout in this instance, is it fair to characterize looking for a payout as "trying to do a bad thing"? I don't think so, no. She may well have been within her legal rights to seek a payout. It seems safe to presume she had at least some legal right to the bust, since the deal she came to with the German museum was not simply return it immediately.

The article claims "Young had a problem: She was in possession of a looted piece of ancient art. She couldn't keep it. She couldn't sell it." But the article doesn't directly quote her saying this. It's conceivable she felt she was morally or ethically obliged to return it. Or maybe she incorrectly believed she was legally obliged to return it, and learned differently only after hiring the lawyer.

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#257
post #207
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You generaly loot from occupied territories, not from peer nations. If Britain invades and occupies Egypt, and starts digging up artifacts that end up on a British museum, that's looting. If some Frenchman digs up some artifacts in France, and then sells/trades/gives them to a British museum, that's not looting. Because the sale/trade/gift is not done at gunpoint. In this case, if the artifact was not plundered from…

> If some Frenchman digs up some artifacts in France, and then sells/trades/gives them to a British museum, that's not looting According to French law, it is both looting and traficking ;) We have a different approach to it than the British.

Sure, that may be the case - but my point is that if French law allowed what I described, it wouldn't be looting, because France is a peer of the UK, as opposed to a vassal.

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#258
post #4

Back at home, Young had a problem: She was in possession of a looted piece of ancient art. She couldn't keep it. She couldn't sell it. And giving it back to its rightful owners was a lot harder than it sounds. “At that point, I realized I was probably going to need some help,” Young says. “I was probably going to need an attorney.” So she hired a lawyer in New York who specializes in international art law, Leila Amin…

I think you assuming that she is some sort of art blackmailer is a truly awful take. Maybe she just want to make sure it went back to the rightful owners? So she contacted a expert.

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sculpture is of a man named Drusus Germanicus. What do you think "Germanicus" means?

If the statue is the Drusus Germanicus I think it is, he was a Roman general and politician who earned the agnomen Germanicus for leading successful military campaigns in Germania. See also: Scipio Africanus; he got that name for conquering Carthage.

It didn't look like the famous one, at least to me.

Romans were notorious for reusing names.

Even if it were the famous one, he was, in fact, in Germany, yes?

Re: $35 sculpture found at an Austin Goodwill was looted from a museum during WWII

#260
post #4

Back at home, Young had a problem: She was in possession of a looted piece of ancient art. She couldn't keep it. She couldn't sell it. And giving it back to its rightful owners was a lot harder than it sounds. “At that point, I realized I was probably going to need some help,” Young says. “I was probably going to need an attorney.” So she hired a lawyer in New York who specializes in international art law, Leila Amin…

I suggest that the reason that the item is staying in Texas on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art for about a year is that it's going to take that long to complete the paperwork to export it to Germany. It has to pass through a bunch of restrictions related to traffic in antiquities (looted or not), it has a value to be determined for import/export that's potentially going to require duty payments, ownership is not totally established so everyone who touches it needs some sort of indemnification in case someone claiming ownership shows up (even if they are just chancing their arm), and it'll have to be insured. Unfortunately I don't believe the thrift store receipt helps any - otherwise thrift store receipts would be a fantastic tool for e.g. money laundering. It would have taken her and one or more specialist lawyers to get to the stage where she could safely hand it to a museum. I'd expect her to be considerably out of pocket in time and fees. It would make an interesting plot for a movie if you imagine someone trying all the naive approaches and triggering all the things that could possibly go wrong.
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