Herbert I. Lazerow (San Diego), Settling Holocaust Art Cases With Tax Help, 180 Tax Notes Fed. 73 (July 3, 2023):

In this article, Lazerow argues that tax incentives such as a charitable deduction and special Holocaust recovery legislation would be useful avenues to help settle disputes arising from art that was separated from owners during the Holocaust and would make negotiated settlements between claimants and museums more likely and efficient than litigation.

Outlines of a Possible Settlement
A good settlement gives each of the parties some of what they want, though never everything. Here are the outlines of a potential settlement, and why they might satisfy the parties:

• The claimant and museum agree to employ a qualified appraiser to produce a qualified appraisal.
• The museum restitutes the work to the claimant.
• The claimant sells a percentage interest in the artwork to the museum for its fair market value based on the qualified appraisal.
• The claimant donates the balance of its interest in the work to the museum.
• The museum publishes a provenance of the work showing the places of the claimant and the claimant’s ancestors in the ownership of the work.
• The museum promises that when the work is displayed, it will be accompanied by an explanation detailing the biography of the claimant’s ancestors from whom the work was taken and a detailed description of the persecution of the ancestors.
• The museum promises that a full provenance of the work agreeable to both the museum and the claimant will permanently reside on the museum’s website.