Human Rights

• Author: International Law Group

Ernst Beyeler is a Swiss national who lives in Basle and owns an art gallery. In 1977, Mr. Beyeler bought a 1989 Van Gogh painting entitled "Portrait of a Young Peasant" for 600,000,000 Italian Lire [probably between $300,000 and $500,000]. He made the purchase through a Roman antique dealer as an intermediary and, apparently to keep from being overcharged, did not disclose his identity to the seller.

As a result, when the vendor filed a declaration of sale with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage pursuant to Law No. 1089 of 1939, the declaration did not mention Mr. Beyeler's name. In 1983, the applicant and the dealer reported to the Ministry the true identity of the buyer. Between 1983 and 1988, there were many discussions about the fate of the painting, its proper storage, whether applicant had good title and whether the Ministry's budget would allow its purchase.

In May 1988, Mr. Beyeler agreed to sell the work to the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, a U.S. corporation with its headquarters in New York City, which planned to exhibit the painting in its Venetian museum. The sale price was $8,500,000. Six months later, the Italian Ministry exercised its right of pre-emption, citing the shortage of Van Gogh paintings in Italy. On the theory that Mr. Beyeler's illegal failure to notify it that he had been the buyer back in 1977 invalidated that purchase, the Ministry bought the painting at the 1977 sale price.

Having been unsuccessful in obtaining redress in the Italian courts, Mr. Beyeler (applicant) filed a complaint with the European Commission of Human Rights in 1996 alleging that the actions of the Italian Ministry had infringed his property rights guaranteed under Article I of Protocol No. 1 of March 1952 [213 U.N.T.S. 262, E.T.S. 9] of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. [Editorial Note: as of January 1, 1999, all parties to the main Convention had ratified the Protocol except Switzerland and Andorra. See B. Carter & P. Trimble, International Law, Selected Documents (1999)] Applicant specifically urged that the Italian authorities had, in effect, expropriated the painting "of which he claimed to be the lawful owner" in breach of the conditions prescribed by Article I. Article I provides that: "[e]very natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the...