High court to decide whether Nazi art case stays in U.S. court
WASHINGTON — Jed Leiber was an adult before he learned that his family was once partowner of a collection of centuries- old religious artworks nowsaid to be worth at least $250million.
Over a steak dinner at a New York City restaurant in the 1990s he had asked his mother about his grandfather, a prominent art dealer who fl fled Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power.“What was grandpa most proud of in his business?” he asked.
“He was very, very proud to have acquired the Guelph Treasure, andthenwasforced to sell it to the Nazis,” she told him.
That conversation set Leiber, of West Hollywood, California, ona decades-long mission to reclaim some 40 pieces of the Guelph Treasure on display in a Berlin museum. It’s a pursuit that has now landed him at the Supreme Court, in a case to be arguedMonday.
For centuries, the collection, called the W el fens chatz in German, was owned by German royalty. It includes elaborate containers used to store Christian relics; small, intricate altar sand or nate crosses. Many are silver or gold and decorated with gems.
In 2015, Leiber’s quest for the collectionled to a lawsuit against Germany and the P russian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The state-run foundation owns the collection and runs Berlin’ s Museum of Decorative Arts, where the collection is housed. Germany and the foundation asked the trial-level court to dismiss the suit, but the court declined. An appeals court also kept the suit alive.
Now, the Supreme Court, which has been hearing arguments by telephone because of the corona virus pandemic, willweighin. Aseparate case involving Hungarian Holocaust victims is being heard the same day.
At this point, the Guelph Treasure case is not about whether Lei ber’ s grandfather and the two other Frankfurt art dealer fifirms that joined to purchase the collection in 1929 were forced to sell it, a claim Germany and the foundation dispute. It’s just about whether Leiber and two other heirs of those dealers, New Mexico resident Alan Philip pa nd London resident Gerald Stiebel, can continue seeking theobjects’ returnin U.S. courts.
In a statement, Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, argued that the suit should be dismissed. The foundation and Germany have the Trump administration’s support.
“Our viewis thatGermany is the proper jurisdiction for a case which involves a sale of a collection ofmedieval German art by German art dealers to a German state,” Parzinger said.
The suit’s claim that the Guelph Treasure was sold underNazi pressurewas also diligently investigated in Germany, hesaid. Thefoundation foundthat the salewasmade voluntarily and for fair market value. A German commission dedicated to investigating claims of property stolen by the Nazis agreed.
Parzinger said records “clearly showthat therewere long and tough negotiations onthe price and that the two sides met exactly in the middle of their initial startingprices.”
The art dealers’ heirs, however, say the purchase price, 4.25 million Reich sm ark, was about one- third of what the collection wasworth. Under international lawprinciples, sales of property by Jews in Nazi Germany are also presumed to have been done under pressure and therefore invalid, said the heirs’ attorney, Nicholas O’Donnell.
Lei ber’ sgrandf at her,Sae my Rosenberg, andthetwoother Frankfurt art dealer fifirms he joined with to purchase the Guelph Treasure did sell other pieces of the collection outside of Germany. But their timingwas unfortunate. The Great Depression hit soon after they purchased the collection. Some of the pieceswere sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art or private collectors. The Nazi-controlled state bought the remainingpieces in1935.
LAKE OSWEGO, ORE. — The activism of Jennifer Dale began when she watched her third grade daughter strugglewith distance learning, kicking and screaming through her online classes.
The mother of three initially sent emails to her local school off iffic ia ls with videos of the disastrous schooldays for her middle daughter, Lizzie, who has Down syndrome. Overtime, sheconnectedwith other parents and joined several protests calling for school buildings to reopen.
Now she helps organize events and has become a voice forwhat has become a statewide movement of parents calling for children to return to school in Oregon, one of only a handful of states that has required at least apartial closure of schools as long as local coronavirus infections remain above certain levels.
“This just isn’t plausible anymore. It’s not fair to the kids, who I am afraid aren’t getting an adequate education,” Dale said during an interview at her home in Lake Oswego as she juggled her work and helping her children who are distance learning. “Somethingneeds tochange. It isnotworking, andourkids are the sacrififices.”
In debates nationwide about opening schools, parents unhappy with distance learning are taking increasingly vocal roles in calling for more in-person instruction through grassroots organizing and legal challenges.
As the surge in coronavirus casesbrings a newround of school closings, lawsuits by parents have followed in states including New York, California and Pennsylvania, arguing that remote learning is falling short of state education standards and causing harmto students.
In many communities, parents have turned out at demonstrations for school reopenings, often greeted by groups of other protesters including teachers and their union supporters asking for improved safetymeasures before students return.
Themovement has gained substantial traction in Oregon, where parents have organized protests across the state, including one at the state Capitol in October that drew hundreds of parents. They have submitted petitions with thousands of signatures, posted anecdotes on social media andwritten to state offifficials.
InNewYorkCity, MayorBill deBlasio set one of the strictest metrics in the country — schools would close citywide if the city reached a 3% positivity rate. But, as businesses in the city reopened, parents arguedthat themetricshould be revisited and that students should beginreturning to the classroom.
Last Sunday, Nov .29, deBlas io abandoned the 3% threshold, announcing that students Pre-K through elementary school, who have opted for in-personlearning, willreturn to schoolbuildings onDec. 7.
Dale’s daughter Lizziewas allowed to begin attending a portion of her classes at her school in Oregon inOctober, as partof anarrangement for special education students. She wears a face shield and as the only student in the classroom, she does not get to see any friends, but she prefers it to “computer school.” Dale’s other children are continuing with distance learning.
Severe illness from the virus among children and teens is rare, particularly in younger ones, but they can often spread the disease without showing any symptoms. School administrators say they see little evidence of virus spread inside schools.
While officials universally stress the importance of in- person education, states have taken different approachesonrisk tolerance with the virus.
Sates including California, Hawaii, NewMexicoand North Carolina also require school districts tomeet similarmetrics inorder to reopen for hybridor in-personlearning. On the other end of the spectrum, governors in states including Arkansas, Florida, IowaandTexas have ordered that schoolsmake in-person learning available.