Buy a stolen Renoir for $7 at a flea market in West Virgina - good title?

[Northern_Piper]

Just curious what the law might be in West Virginia on the recent purchase of a stolen Renoir at a flea market for $7. Under West Virginia law, is it likely to pass good title, as a bona fide purchaser for value?

[md2000]

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/spencer/spencers-art-law-journal7-26-10.asp

This discusses Nazi art thefts, but mentions that in most of the Anglo-law world, a person cannot get title by buying stolen articles in good faith, even from someone who also bought them in good faith.

[Gray_Ghost]

IANAL. I am certainly not a WV licensed attorney.

My own lay understanding, informed by this 2000 law review article, is that a thief cannot convey good title to personalty. FTA:

“If property, including artwork, is stolen, the law in the United States prevents a purchaser from acquiring good title regardless of the purchaser’s good faith and ignorance of the theft…”

"…the English nemo dat rule, provides that one who purchases, no matter how innocently, from a thief, or all subsequent purchasers from the thief, acquires no title in the property. Title always remains with the true owner. Thus, in the absence of a limitations bar or a laches defense, a purchaser, whether an individual or an institution, would not acquire good title to valuable artwork if there was a thief anywhere in the chain of title. As a result, even innocent purchasers of stolen artwork are exposed indefinitely to claims of true owners…

Because the innocence or good faith of buyers is irrelevant to the question of title, the question that usually determines the outcome in stolen art cases is whether the claim is precluded by the applicable statute of limitations or the equitable doctrine of laches.’

The article also cites in a footnote, the UCC section § 2-403. According to the article’s author, this section “…provides that a mere possessor cannot convey good title.” W. Virginia is a UCC state and the relevant statute may be found here. From it:

A purchaser of goods acquires all title which his transferor had or had power to transfer except that a purchaser of a limited interest acquires rights only to the extent of the interest purchased.

Since the thief, somewhere in the possession chain of the artwork, didn’t have the right to transfer title in the first place, no one taking possession after the thief could have received good title to the personal property. Or transferred good title to the purchaser in WV.

As mentioned above, it may be that the statute of limitations in West Virginia will bar any suit by the owner who suffered the theft. (Or if not WV, then whichever jurisdiction will qualify. That seems like an interesting conflict of laws question: E.g., if the artwork was stolen in MD, from a NY owner, and the artwork is rediscovered at this sale in WV, whose SOL procedure should we follow? Whose laws on notice?)

The review article looks interesting at first glance. I’d no idea there was such intricacy to these disputes.

[freckafree]

I heard an NPR piece on Friday about this, and, if the piece was insured by the Baltimore museum from which it was stolen and the insurance company paid the claim, the insurance company could assert that they own it. As the reporter said, “Now it goes to the lawyers, where it will be tied up for many years to come.”

I was kind of surprised the piece was only valued at $75,000.

[Peter_Morris]

Nemo dat quod non habet

[WotNot]

@Gray_Ghost

That seems like an interesting conflict of laws question: E.g., if the artwork was stolen in MD, from a NY owner, and the artwork is rediscovered at this sale in WV, whose SOL procedure should we follow?

I’ll confess it took me a moment to realize that SOL stood for Statute Of Limitations in that sentence.

Either way, I suppose someone’s SOL

[Ulf_the_Unwashed]

A good title? Well, it’s decent, anyway, and it does have a certain ring to it…BUT

1. It doesn’t scan as well as you’d like for a pop or country song;
2. It’s more descriptive than you’d need for a novel;
3. They’d have a really hard time fitting it on a movie theater marquee.

I’d suggested going back to the ol’ drawing board on this one. Have you considered “Of Human Bondage”? Or “Star Wars”? Or–

oh…THAT kind of title.

[Sal_Ammoniac]

On a totally side note, is there anyone out there who actually thinks this is a good painting? I think $7 is a mite generous for that piece of crap.

[Quercus]

@Ulf_the_Unwashed

A good title? Well, it’s decent, anyway, and it does have a certain ring to it…BUT

1. It doesn’t scan as well as you’d like for a pop or country song;
2. It’s more descriptive than you’d need for a novel;
3. They’d have a really hard time fitting it on a movie theater marquee.

On the other hand, it makes a decent title for a modern short-story, or could be a good chapter title for the right kind of book.

Too long for a band name, though. But keep reading the Dope; one will show up soon enough.