In an unprecedented move, the Jewish Museum in Prague has filed suit against the Czech Culture Ministry on behalf of a Chicago-area man who is claiming ownership of artwork looted by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
The lawsuit, believed to be the first filed by a Czech museum against the Culture Ministry, alleges that Czech authorities are attempting to block the lawful restitution of the art to Gerald McDonald, a Vietnam war veteran living on disability in suburban Lyons.
"I'm grateful that the Jewish Museum is going to fight for this," said McDonald, 52.
"Sitting here in Lyons, it's not easy to take on the Czech government," added McDonald, who does not work because of the debilitating effects of hepatitis C. He is awaiting a liver transplant.
Shortly after McDonald was identified last December as heir to the collection of Emil Freund -- a Czech Jew whose art was looted before his death, in 1942 -- the Czech Culture Ministry moved to prevent the Jewish Museum from returning the art. In January, the ministry informed the museum that it was considering declaring the most valuable of Freund's works "national treasures" that could not be removed from the country. In addition, the Culture Ministry warned the Jewish Museum to protect the paintings from "misappropriation."
A month later, in February, the Czech Culture Ministry officially classified the most valuable works in Freund's collection as national treasures.
In response, the Jewish Museum in Prague filed suit three weeks ago challenging the legality and fairness of the Czech Culture Ministry's action.
"It is not acceptable for any democracy around the world to build up the national heritage on loot," said Michaela Hajkova, curator of the Jewish Museum in Prague.
The Czech Culture Ministry declined to comment.
The Jewish Museum's lawsuit says that the Czech Culture Ministry's action "renders impossible a full alleviation of certain property-related injustices caused by the Holocaust, whose alleviation was the intention of the [Czech] legislature."
Since the latest round of Czech restitution laws was drafted, in 2000, critics have cited loopholes that often render the laws virtually meaningless.
Among the most prominent were those posed by the country's cultural patrimony laws, which allow the Culture Ministry to prevent any artwork deemed a national treasure from receiving an export license, regardless of whether that art had been looted by the Nazis. The Culture Ministry often does not declare a work a national treasure until after a claim has been filed, causing skeptics to believe that works are so designated specifically to pre-empt restitution.Copyright © 2014, Chicago Tribune