NEWSWATCH: “Obama Signs Law That Could Reopen Cultural Exchange with #Russia; Russia’s major museums have not lent artworks to the US since 2011.” – Artnet News/Alyssa Buffenstein

January 6, 2017 JRL Russia List International Law, JRL NewsBlog, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

A new law signed … grants foreign states immunity from US jurisdiction in cases related to the temporary exhibition of loaned artworks …. Despite current tensions between Obama and … Putin – and opposition to the bill from groups like the Holocaust Art Restitution Project – the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act could mean the renewing of cultural exchange between the US and #Russia. There are exceptions to the bill, however, such as for property rights cases that violate international law, specifically artworks looted by Germany or its allies during World War II, or any taken after 1900 “as part of a systematic campaign of coercive confiscation or misappropriation of works from members of a targeted and vulnerable group.” The bill has been criticized for its leniency in allowing foreign countries to keep stolen art.