The Court of Appeals has issued a large number of decisions in recent weeks. This month, we discuss cases addressing the return of an ancient artifact looted from a German museum during World War II, the finality of a judgment arising out of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the existence of a private right of action under the Exempt Income Protection Act of 2008.
‘Spoils of War’ Doctrine
It is not every day that the court finds itself presented with argument concerning the “spoils of war” doctrine, but In the Matter of Riven Flamenbaum, Deceased provided such an opportunity. In this probate proceeding, the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, Germany, sought to recover a 3,000-year-old gold tablet from the estate of a Holocaust survivor named Riven Flamenbaum. The tablet dates back to the reign of Assyrian King Tukulti-Ninurta I and was first discovered by German archeologists excavating in what is now Iraq before the First World War. It was sent to the museum in 1926. The museum was closed because of the Second World War in 1939 and a number of artifacts, including the gold tablet, were put in storage. By the end of the war in 1945, the gold tablet had gone missing.
