[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6130 Engrossed in House (EH)]
<DOC>
114th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6130
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
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 hundreds of thousands of works of art and other
property 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
43 other 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) Victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs have taken
legal action in the United States 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., 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
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 necessary to
ensure that claims to Nazi-confiscated art are adjudicated in
accordance with United States policy as expressed in the
Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the
Holocaust Victims Redress Act, and the Terezin Declaration.
(8) While litigation may be used to resolve claims to
recover Nazi-confiscated art, it is the sense of Congress that
the private resolution of claims by parties involved, on the
merits and through the use of alternative dispute resolution
such as mediation panels established for this purpose with the
aid of experts in provenance research and history, will yield
just and fair resolutions in a more efficient and predictable
manner.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are the following:
(1) To ensure that laws governing claims to Nazi-
confiscated art and other property 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 and other property
stolen or misappropriated by the Nazis are not unfairly barred
by statutes of limitations but are resolved in a just and fair
manner.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Actual discovery.--The term ``actual discovery'' means
knowledge.
(2) Artwork or other property.--The term ``artwork or other
property'' means--
(A) pictures, paintings, and drawings;
(B) statuary art and sculpture;
(C) engravings, prints, lithographs, and works of
graphic art;
(D) applied art and original artistic assemblages
and montages;
(E) books, archives, musical objects and
manuscripts (including musical manuscripts and sheets),
and sound, photographic, and cinematographic archives
and mediums; and
(F) sacred and ceremonial objects and Judaica.
(3) Covered period.--The term ``covered period'' means the
period beginning on January 1, 1933, and ending on December 31,
1945.
(4) Knowledge.--The term ``knowledge'' means having actual
knowledge of a fact or circumstance or sufficient information
with regard to a relevant fact or circumstance to amount to
actual knowledge thereof.
(5) Nazi persecution.--The term ``Nazi persecution'' means
any persecution of a specific group of individuals based on
Nazi ideology by the Government of Germany, its allies or
agents, members of the Nazi Party, or their agents or
associates, during the covered period.
SEC. 5. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal or
State law or any defense at law relating to the passage of time, and
except as otherwise provided in this section, a civil claim or cause of
action against a defendant to recover any artwork or other property
that was lost during the covered period because of Nazi persecution 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 other
property; and
(2) a possessory interest of the claimant in the artwork or
other property.
(b) Possible Misidentification.--For purposes of subsection (a)(1),
in a case in which the artwork or other property is one of a group of
substantially similar multiple artworks or other property, actual
discovery of the identity and location of the artwork or other property
shall be deemed to occur on the date on which there are facts
sufficient to form a substantial basis to believe that the artwork or
other property is the artwork or other property that was lost.
(c) Preexisting Claims.--Except as provided in subsection (e), a
civil claim or cause of action described in subsection (a) shall be
deemed to have been actually discovered on the date of enactment of
this Act if--
(1) before the date of enactment of this Act--
(A) a claimant had knowledge of the elements set
forth in subsection (a); and
(B) the civil claim or cause of action was barred
by a Federal or State statute of limitations; or
(2)(A) before the date of enactment of this Act, a claimant
had knowledge of the elements set forth in subsection (a); and
(B) on the date of enactment of this Act, the civil claim
or cause of action was not barred by a Federal or State statute
of limitations.
(d) Applicability.--Subsection (a) shall apply to any civil claim
or cause of action that is--
(1) pending in any court on the date of enactment of this
Act, including any civil claim or cause of action that is
pending on appeal or for which the time to file an appeal has
not expired; or
(2) filed during the period beginning on the date of
enactment of this Act and ending on December 31, 2026.
(e) Exception.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to any civil claim
or cause of action barred on the day before the date of enactment of
this Act by a Federal or State statute of limitations if--
(1) the claimant or a predecessor-in-interest of the
claimant had knowledge of the elements set forth in subsection
(a) on or after January 1, 1999; and
(2) not less than 6 years have passed from the date such
claimant or predecessor-in-interest acquired such knowledge and
during which time the civil claim or cause of action was not
barred by a Federal or State statute of limitations.
(f) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed
to create a civil claim or cause of action under Federal or State law.
(g) Sunset.--This Act shall cease to have effect on January 1,
2027, except that this Act shall continue to apply to any civil claim
or cause of action described in subsection (a) that is pending on
January 1, 2027. Any civil claim or cause of action commenced on or
after that date to recover artwork or other property described in this
Act shall be subject to any applicable Federal or State statute of
limitations or any other Federal or State defense at law relating to
the passage of time.
Passed the House of Representatives December 7, 2016.
Attest:
Clerk.
114th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6130
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
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.