18‐634‐cv Zuckerman v. The Metropolitan Museum of Art UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT _______________ August Term, 2018 (Argued: February 27, 2019 Decided: June 26, 2019) Docket No. 18‐634 _______________ LAUREL ZUCKERMAN, AS ANCILLARY ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE OF ALICE LEFFMANN, Plaintiff‐Appellant, —v.— THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, Defendant‐Appellee. _______________ B e f o r e: KATZMANN, Chief Judge, LIVINGSTON and DRONEY, Circuit Judges. _______________ Plaintiff‐Appellant Laurel Zuckerman appeals from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Preska, J.) dismissing her complaint for failure to state a claim. Zuckerman seeks recovery of a painting by Pablo Picasso that has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 18‐634‐cv Zuckerman v. The Metropolitan Museum of Art possession since 1952. The painting once belonged to Zuckerman’s ancestors, Paul and Alice Leffmann, who sold it in 1938 to a private dealer to obtain funds to flee fascist Italy after having already fled the Nazi regime in their native Germany. The district court concluded that Zuckerman failed to allege duress under New York law. We do not reach the issue of whether Zuckerman properly alleged duress because we find that her claims are barred by the doctrine of laches. Accordingly, we AFFIRM. _______________ LAWRENCE M. KAYE (Ross L. Hirsch, Yael M. Weitz, on the brief), Herrick, Feinstein LLP, New York, NY, for Plaintiff‐Appellant. DAVID W. BOWKER, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Washington, DC; Michael D. Gottesman, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, New York, NY, for Defendant‐ Appellee. Thomas J. Hamilton, John J. Byrne, Jr., Byrne Goldenberg & Hamilton, PLLC, for Amicus Curiae Holocaust Art Restitution Project. Stanley W. Levy, Benjamin G. Shatz, Diana L. Eisner, Danielle C. Newman, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, for Amici Curiae The 1939 Society and Bet Tzedek. Owen C. Pell, White & Case LLP, for Amici Curiae Natalia Indrimi, Professor Guido Alpa, and Avv. Renzo Gattenga. Jennifer A. Kreder, Cincinnati, OH, for Amici Curiae Bʹnai Bʹrith International, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Omer Bartov, Michael Berenbaum, Stuart Elliot Eizenstat, Richard Falk, Eugene Fisher, Irving Greenberg, Peter Hayes, Marcia Sachs Littell, Hubert G. Locke, Wendy Lower, Bruce F. Pauley, Carol Rittner, John K. Roth, Lucille A. Roussin, William L. Shulman, Stephen Smith and Alan Steinweis. _______________ 2 18‐634‐cv Zuckerman v. The Metropolitan Museum of Art KATZMANN, Chief Judge: In the 1930s, the German government, under the control of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the “Nazis”), launched a campaign of oppression against German Jews and other minorities. As part of its reign of terror, the Nazis and their affiliates forced Jews out of their homes, seized their businesses, and stripped them of their property. By the late 1930s, life in Germany for Jewish people became so dangerous that many were forced to flee the country. Of those who were unable to escape, most were removed from their homes, shipped to concentration camps, and murdered. In recent decades, with the passage of ...
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