[CPProt.net] Litigation Over Picasso Painting Settled Out of Court

[MusSecNetworkCulPropProtNet]

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From: E. Randol Schoenberg [mailto:randols at bslaw.net] 
Sent: 09 August 2005 17:38
To: E. Randol Schoenberg
Subject: Litigation Over Picasso Painting Settled Out of Court

Litigation Over Picasso Painting Settled Out of Court 

 
LOS ANGELES, CHICAGO, [Date] - Litigation pending in three separate forums
regarding ownership of a Pablo Picasso painting, Femme en blanc ("Women in
White"), has been resolved by mutual agreement in an out-of-court
settlement. The painting was reported by the Art Loss Register, Ltd. of
London, England to have been looted by Nazis in Paris during the Holocaust
and disappeared from public view for 35 years. Plaintiff Thomas Bennigson,
resident of the Bay Area in Northern California, grandson and sole heir of
Carlota Landsberg, the original owner of the painting, filed a civil suit in
California state court that was pending before the California Supreme Court
on jurisdictional issues. The defendant in that lawsuit, Marilynn Alsdorf of
Chicago, Illinois, who with her now deceased husband James Alsdorf had
purchased the painting in 1976 from the Stephen Hahn Gallery in New York
City, filed suit in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in which she
asked the court to remove the cloud that had been placed on her title to the
painting.  Following investigation by the Los Angeles Field Office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Attorneys Office filed a
lawsuit to seize and recover the painting in the U.S. District Court for the
Central District of California.
 
Agreement was reached after discussion and negotiation between the parties
and their attorneys in Los Angeles on June 13, moderated by United States
Magistrate Judge Margaret A. Nagle of U.S. District Court for the Central
District of California. Thomas Bennigson was represented by his legal
counsel, E. Randol Schoenberg of Burris & Shoenberg, LLP in Los Angeles.
Marilynn Alsdorf was represented by her attorneys, Richard H. Chapman and
David M. Rownd of FagelHaber, LLC in Chicago. Assistant U.S. Attorney for
the Central District of California John E. Lee attended the session and
concurred that issues in the government's case were appropriately resolved
with the settlement agreement. While maintaining that the painting had been
purchased in good faith with proper legal title, Marilynn Alsdorf agreed to
the settlement citing her advanced age and the need to resolve financial
claims so her commitments to family and charitable organizations may be
completed. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Mrs. Alsdorf will
make a substantial monetary payment to Mr. Bennigson after the United States
District Court for the Central District of California enters a Consent
Judgment decreeing that Mrs. Alsdorf has incontestable title to the
painting.
  

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E. Randol Schoenberg
Burris & Schoenberg, LLP
12121 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 800
Los Angeles, California 90025-1168
Tel: (310) 442-5559
Fax: (310) 442-0353
eFax: (425) 740-0483
E-mail: randols at bslaw.net
http://www.bslaw.net