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This bill would block legal claims to artwork on loan to museums and galleries in the U.S. from abroad.

The bill would make it so that the actions of an art dealer or foreign country exhibiting work in the U.S. would not be considered “commercial activity,” providing that said art meet the following qualifications:

The work is brought into the U.S. for display purposes;
The President or a proxy deems that the works are culturally significant or that their display is in the national interest;
Notice has been published in the Federal Register.

Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a foreign government has to be engaged in commercial activity in the U.S. for it to be sue-able. As the Congressional Budget Office explains:

\"Under current law, works of art loaned by foreign governments generally are immune from certain decisions made by federal courts and cannot be confiscated as long as the President, or the President’s designee, determines that display of the works is in the national interest. However, commercial activity in which foreign governments are engaged does not have immunity in federal courts.\"

This legislation would clarify that importing a work of art into the U.S. just to show in a museum or other gallery for a temporary amount of time, is not a commercial activity. Thus, these eligible works of art would be immune from seizure.

As with anything, there are exceptions. Works of art would not be immune from seizure if they were taken \"in violation of international law.\" This bill cites specifically any work taken during World War Two by the Nazi government or its collaborators.

","official_title":"To amend chapter 97 of title 28, United States Code, to clarify the exception to foreign sovereign immunity set forth in section 1605(a)(3) of such title.","short_title":"Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the House reported version is repeated here.)\n\nForeign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act\n\n(Sec. 2) Amends the federal judicial code with respect to denial of a foreign state's sovereign immunity from the jurisdiction of U.S. or state courts in commercial activity cases where rights in property taken in violation of international law are in issue and that property, or any property exchanged for it, is: (1) present in the United States in connection with a commercial activity carried on by the foreign state in the United States, or (2) owned by an agency or instrumentality of the foreign state and that agency or instrumentality is engaged in a commercial activity in the United States.\n\nProhibits from being excluded from jurisdictional immunity as a commercial activity (and thereby provides immunity for) any activity in the United States of a foreign state, or of any carrier, assoc...","summarized":true,"cost":0,"cost_commentary":"The CBO cost estimate found that this bill would have no significant effect on the federal budget.","impact":"Art lovers, people who frequent U.S. art museums, art dealers, foreign governments displaying art in the U.S., U.S. art museums, artist heirs, people who lost collections in catastrophes and their descendants. 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Should Congress Protect Foreign Art Collections From Legal Claims?