December 13, 2014 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL & FAX Julia - TopicsExpress



          

December 13, 2014 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL & FAX Julia Frifield Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Legislative Affairs U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20520 By Email: [email protected] Re: FOLLOW UP ON THE “CONSEIL DES VENTES”’S HEARING REQUESTING AN ADMINISTRATIVE SUSPENSION OF AN AUCTION SALE SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 15, 2014 « ART AMERINDIEN ET PRECOLOMBIEN » Dear Ms. Frifield: My firm represents Ori Z. Soltes in his capacity as the Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (“HARP”), a not-for-profit group based in Washington, DC, dedicated to the identification and restitution of looted artworks requiring detailed research and analysis of public and private archives in North America. HARP has worked for 16 years on the restitution of artworks looted by the Nazi regime. My client also teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines, from theology and art history to philosophy and political history. He also is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, where he curated exhibitions on a variety of subjects from archaeology to ethnography to contemporary art. He has taught, lectured and curated exhibitions across the country and internationally. He also is the author of over 230 articles, exhibition catalogues, essays and books on a range of topics. Recent books include The Ashen Rainbow: The Arts and the Holocaust; Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; Searching for Oneness: Mysticism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and Untangling the Web: A Thinking Person’s Guide to Why the Middle East is a Mess and Always Has Been. Ori, along with HARP’s team, was also involved in a number of restitution matters, such as providing the historical research and background with regard to Egon Schiele’s “Portrait of Wally” case, as well as the restitution of “Odalisque”, a painting by Henri Matisse, to the Paul Rosenberg family. In light of Senator McCain’s announcement of a request to you to review the December 15, 2014 sale mentioned above, and the potential response from the U.S. Federal Government, my client asked me to inform you of the legal process which HARP and the Hopi tribe Chairman have followed and its recent results. On December 09, 2014, HARP, represented by its Director, Ori Z. Soltes, and Herman G. Honanie, Chairman of the Hopi Tribe Council, jointly announced the filing of an action before the French “Conseil des Ventes” (“Board of Auction Sales,” hereinafter “Conseil”), an administrative body in charge of regulating and supervising auction sales on the French market, requesting the administrative suspension of an auction sale of sacred “kwaa tsi” owned by the Hopi tribe, scheduled for Monday, December 15, 2014. The Conseil is under the legal authority of France’s Ministry of Justice. The action argued that title for these objects never vested with subsequent possessors due to the sacred nature of these objects, as well as to the numerous American statutes and regulations protecting these objects. Enclosed for your review is a copy of the December 09 complaint, along with a supplemental brief filed on December 12, 2014 (“Exhibit A”). Given the length of these documents, we apologize for not being able to translate them from French into English for you in such a short period of time. Because the legal standard in France is the seller’s good faith in acquiring these objects, rather than the risks associated with the warranty of title, the complaint focused on many indicia establishing that the seller could not have ignored that these objects were protected in the U.S. under many statutes and regulations, such as the Antiquities Act of 1906, 16 U.S.C. § 431-433 (2014), the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (“ARPA”), 16 U.S.C. § 470aa, 470bb 470cc (2014), the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (“NAGPRA”), 25 U.S.C. § 3001, 3002 (2014), and the Arizona Antiquities Act of 1960, ARIZ. REV. STAT. ANN. § 41-841-41-844 (2014). Furthermore, the complaint brought to the attention of the Conseil a number of criminal statutory provisions allowing for criminal prosecution of individual collectors or dealers under certain conditions, as well as examples of such successful prosecutions in the U.S. United States v. Corrow, 119 F.3d 796 (10th Cir. 1997). United States v. Tidwell, 191 F.3d 976 (9th Cir.1999). My client, the Chairman of the Hopi Tribe council through a representative, and I attended a phone hearing before the Conseil on Thursday, December 11, 2014, to defend these legal arguments. In its decision issued yesterday, the Conseil refused to suspend the sale purely on standing grounds. My client is outraged at this decision, which held that the Chairman of the Hopi tribe had no standing because the Conseil refused to recognize that these objects’ title could vest to tribal members or their leaders. (“Exhibit B”). Last June, in a similar action filed by HARP before the Conseil requesting the suspension of another auction sale of Hopi protected objects scheduled for June 27, 2014, the Conseil had held that the Hopi Nation had no standing to sue either, because it refused to honor its legal recognition by the U.S. Federal Government (“Exhibit C”). The combination of both of these decisions is potentially significant. First, a French Government Agency, not a private party or a judicial body, has ruled that, neither an individual tribe member or leader, nor the Hopi tribe, have any legal existence or standing to pursue any cultural claim in France. Therefore, these two decisions have the potential to close the door to ANY tribal group AND their members to file any cultural claims in France involving auction houses, regardless of title-related merits. Second, my client believes that the French Government is sending an appalling message that its market is wide open to looted property. Finally, my client believes that this complete denial of access to justice flies in the face of international law principles in favor of all tribes and indigenous peoples, as the French government had endorsed, in the UN General Assembly, the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). If you have any questions about this package, please do not hesitate to contact us. Respectfully yours, __________________________________ Pierre Ciric Member of the Firm Cc: John McCain U.S. Senator for the State of Arizona U.S. Senate 241 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone: (202) 224-2235 Fax: (202) 228-2862 Jeff Flake U.S. Senator for the State of Arizona U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. Office Senate Russell Office Building 368 Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-4521 Fax: 202-228-0515 Ann Kirkpatrick U.S. Representative, Arizona First District U.S. House of Representatives 201 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-3361 Fax: 202-225-3462 Raoul Grijalva U.S. Representative Arizona Third District U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. Office 1511 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2435 Fax: (202) 225-1541 Paul Gosar U.S. Representative, Arizona Fourth District U.S. House of Representatives 504 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2315 Matt Salmon U.S. Representative, Arizona Fifth District U.S. House of Representatives 2349 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2635 Fax: (202) 226-4386 David Schweikert U.S. Representative, Arizona Sixth District U.S. House of Representatives 1205 Longworth House Office Building Washington DC, 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2190 Fax: (202) 225-0096 Trent Franks U.S. Representative, Arizona Eighth District U.S. House of Representatives 2435 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4576 Fax: (202) 225-6328 Krysten Sinema U.S. Representative, Arizona Ninth District U.S. House of Representatives 1237 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-9888 Irina Bokova Director-General UNESCO 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 PARIS 07 SP FRANCE Fax: (01) 45-67-16-90 Par courriel : [email protected] Paola Leoncini Bartoli Attachée principale Cabinet de la Directrice générale Fax: (011) 33-1 45 68 55 53 Par courriel : [email protected] Louise-Agnès Mackongo Assistante exécutive de la Directrice générale Secrétariat de la Directrice générale Fax: (011) 33-1-45-68-55-69 Par courriel : [email protected] Cultural Heritage Protection Treaties Section, UNESCO 1, Rue Miollis 75732 Paris cedex 15 FRANCE Edouard Planche Par courriel: [email protected] Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske U.S. Customs and Border Protection 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20229 U.S.A. Par courriel: [email protected] Office of International Affairs Charles E. Stallworth II Par courriel : [email protected] Office of Public Affairs Chris ONeil, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Par courriel : [email protected] Michael Friel, Director of Media Division Par courriel : Email: [email protected] Judith Benderson Office of Legal and Victim Programs Executive Office for United States Attorneys United States Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2242 Washington, DC 20530-0001 U.S.A. Fax: (202) 252-1415 Par courriel: [email protected], [email protected] Sally Jewell Secretary of the Interior Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington DC 20240 U.S.A. Par courriel: [email protected], [email protected] Herman G. Honanie Chairman Hopi Tribal Council Fax: (928) 734-6665 Par courriel: [email protected] P.O. Box 123 Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039 By E-Mail: [email protected] Ori Z. Soltes Director Holocaust Art Restitution Project, Inc. c/o 5114 Westridge Road Bethesda, MD 20816-1623 By e-mail: orisoltes@gmail
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 07:35:36 +0000

Trending Topics



Recently Viewed Topics




© 2015