[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2763 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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114th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2763
To provide the victims of Holocaust-era persecution and their heirs a
fair opportunity to recover works of art confiscated or misappropriated
by the Nazis.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 7, 2016
Mr. Cornyn (for himself, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Schumer, and Mr. Blumenthal)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide the victims of Holocaust-era persecution and their heirs a
fair opportunity to recover works of art confiscated or misappropriated
by the Nazis.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery
Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) It is estimated that the Nazis confiscated or otherwise
misappropriated as many as 650,000 works of art throughout
Europe as part of their genocidal campaign against the Jewish
people and other persecuted groups. This has been described as
the ``greatest displacement of art in human history''.
(2) Following World War II, the United States and its
allies attempted to return the stolen artworks to their
countries of origin. Despite these efforts, many works of art
were never reunited with their owners. Some of the art has
since been discovered in the United States.
(3) In 1998, the United States convened a conference with
44 nations in Washington, DC, known as the Washington
Conference, which produced Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art.
One of these principles is that ``steps should be taken
expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution'' to claims
involving such art that has not been restituted if the owners
or their heirs can be identified.
(4) The same year, Congress enacted the Holocaust Victims
Redress Act (Public Law 105-158, 112 Stat. 15), which expressed
the sense of Congress that ``all governments should undertake
good faith efforts to facilitate the return of private and
public property, such as works of art, to the rightful owners
in cases where assets were confiscated from the claimant during
the period of Nazi rule and there is reasonable proof that the
claimant is the rightful owner.''.
(5) In 2009, the United States participated in a Holocaust
Era Assets Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, with 45 other
nations. At the conclusion of this conference, the
participating nations issued the Terezin Declaration, which
reaffirmed the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-
Confiscated Art and urged all participants ``to ensure that
their legal systems or alternative processes, while taking into
account the different legal traditions, facilitate just and
fair solutions with regard to Nazi-confiscated and looted art,
and to make certain that claims to recover such art are
resolved expeditiously and based on the facts and merits of the
claims and all the relevant documents submitted by all
parties.''. The Declaration also urged participants to
``consider all relevant issues when applying various legal
provisions that may impede the restitution of art and cultural
property, in order to achieve just and fair solutions, as well
as alternative dispute resolution, where appropriate under
law.''.
(6) Numerous victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs
have taken legal action to recover Nazi-confiscated art. These
lawsuits face significant procedural obstacles partly due to
State statutes of limitations, which typically bar claims
within some limited number of years from either the date of the
loss or the date that the claim should have been discovered. In
some cases, this means that the claims expired before World War
II even ended. (See, e.g., The Detroit Institute of Arts v.
Ullin, No. 06-10333, 2007 WL 1016996 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 31,
2007).) The unique and horrific circumstances of World War II
and the Holocaust make statutes of limitations and other time-
based procedural defenses especially burdensome to the victims
and their heirs. Those seeking recovery of Nazi-confiscated art
must painstakingly piece together their cases from a
fragmentary historical record ravaged by persecution, war, and
genocide. This costly process often cannot be done within the
time constraints imposed by existing law.
(7) Federal legislation is needed because the only court
that has considered the question held that the Constitution
prohibits States from making exceptions to their statutes of
limitations to accommodate claims involving the recovery of
Nazi-confiscated art. In Von Saher v. Norton Simon Museum of
Art, 592 F.3d 954 (9th Cir. 2009), the United States Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit invalidated a California law that
extended the State statute of limitations for claims seeking
recovery of Holocaust-era artwork. The Court held that the law
was an unconstitutional infringement of the Federal
Government's exclusive authority over foreign affairs, which
includes the resolution of war-related disputes. In light of
this precedent, the enactment of a Federal law is the best way
to ensure that claims to Nazi-confiscated art are adjudicated
on their merits.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are the following:
(1) To ensure that laws governing claims to Nazi-
confiscated art further United States policy as set forth in
the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art,
the Holocaust Victims Redress Act, and the Terezin Declaration.
(2) To ensure that claims to artwork stolen or
misappropriated by the Nazis are not barred by statutes of
limitations and other similar legal doctrines but are resolved
in a just and fair manner on the merits.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act--
(1) the term ``actual discovery'' does not include any
constructive knowledge imputed by law;
(2) the term ``artwork or other cultural property''
includes any painting, sculpture, drawing, work of graphic art,
print, multiples, book, manuscript, archive, or sacred or
ceremonial object;
(3) the term ``persecution during the Nazi era'' means any
persecution by the Nazis or their allies during the period from
January 1, 1933, to December 31, 1945, that was based on race,
ethnicity, or religion; and
(4) the term ``unlawfully lost'' includes any theft,
seizure, forced sale, sale under duress, or any other loss of
an artwork or cultural property that would not have occurred
absent persecution during the Nazi era.
SEC. 5. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal
law, any provision of State law, or any defense at law or equity
relating to the passage of time (including the doctrine of laches), a
civil claim or cause of action against a defendant to recover any
artwork or other cultural property unlawfully lost because of
persecution during the Nazi era or for damages for the taking or
detaining of any artwork or other cultural property unlawfully lost
because of persecution during the Nazi era may be commenced not later
than 6 years after the actual discovery by the claimant or the agent of
the claimant of--
(1) the identity and location of the artwork or cultural
property; and
(2) information or facts sufficient to indicate that the
claimant has a claim for a possessory interest in the artwork
or cultural property that was unlawfully lost.
(b) Possible Misidentification.--For purposes of subsection (a)(1),
in a case in which there is a possibility of misidentification of the
artwork or cultural property, the identification of the artwork or
cultural property shall occur on the date on which there are facts
sufficient to determine that the artwork or cultural property is likely
to be the artwork or cultural property that was unlawfully lost.
(c) Applicability.--
(1) In general.--Subsection (a) shall apply to any civil
claim or cause of action (including a civil claim or cause of
action described in paragraph (2)) that is--
(A) pending on the date of enactment of this Act;
or
(B) filed during the period beginning on the date
of enactment of this Act and ending on December 31,
2026.
(2) Inclusion of previously dismissed claims.--A civil
claim or cause of action described in this paragraph is a civil
claim or cause of action--
(A) that was dismissed before the date of enactment
of this Act based on the expiration of a Federal or
State statute of limitations or any other defense at
law or equity relating to the passage of time
(including the doctrine of laches); and
(B) in which final judgment has not been entered.
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