TREDWAY LUMSDAINE & DOYLE LLP’S (TLD) PARTNER MARK C. DOYLE REPRESENTS TRUSTEE IN SUCCESSFULLY CLAIMING NAZI-LOOTED ART

Max Liebermann’s ‘Summer Evening on the Alster’ (1910). Photo credit: Sotheby’s

Mark C. Doyle, partner at TLD’s Orange County regional office, recently provided a client with trusted legal counsel in an effort to recover lost/stolen Nazi-era artwork. The Max Liebermann painting “Summer Evening on the Alster’ (1910), was confiscated from Dr. Gustav and Clara Kirstein in August 1941 and shuffled through private buyers and galleries for nearly half a century. With legal guidance from Doyle, who worked in unison with attorneys from New York and Germany, the painting was transferred to Sotheby’s in London to be auctioned on behalf of Doyle’s client – a Kirstein heir. Several other Kirstein heirs also were to benefit from the sale.

Doyle helped to establish his client’s right to inheritance under German law, which posed thorny legal challenges in the realm of restitution. With support from the New York-based art attorney, they established the client’s legitimacy to negotiate and recover the confiscated artwork. The valued painting pictured here successfully sold at a Sotheby’s art auction held in London on Feb. 5, 2014, for more than $1.4 million.