[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6130 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
H.R.6130
One Hundred Fourteenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
the fourth day of January, two thousand and sixteen
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.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.