THE J. PAUL GETTY TRUST AND OTHERS v. ITALY

• Judgment Date: 02 May 2024
• ECLI: ECLI:CE:ECHR:2024:0502JUD003527119
• Date: 02 May 2024
• Application Number: 35271/19
• Court: First Section (European Court of Human Rights)
• Respondent State: Italia
• Applied Rules: 35;35-3-a;P1-1;P1-1-1;1;5;5-1;5-1-f

FIRST SECTION

CASE OF THE J. PAUL GETTY TRUST AND OTHERS v. ITALY

(Application no. 35271/19)

JUDGMENT

Art 1 P1 • Peaceful enjoyment of possessions • Proportionate confiscation order issued by Italian authorities aimed at recovering from the Getty Museum in the US a bronze statue from the classical Greek period • Applicant trust sufficiently affected by contested measure although not yet enforced • Impugned order engaged respondent State’s responsibility for the purposes of Art 1 • Proprietary interest sufficiently established and weighty to amount to “possession” • Art 1 P1 applicable • Legal basis for contested measure sufficiently clear, foreseeable and compatible with the rule of law • Mere lack of time-limit for recovery actions could not automatically lead to interference being unforeseeable or arbitrary • Protection of country’s cultural and artistic heritage a legitimate aim for Convention purposes • Strong consensus in International and European law with regard to need to protect cultural objects from unlawful exportation and return them to their country of origin • Italian authorities reasonably demonstrated that the statue was part of Italy’s cultural heritage and legally belonged to the State when confiscation order was issued • Domestic courts’ conclusions neither manifestly erroneous or arbitrary • Order given “in the public or general interest” with a view to protecting Italy’s cultural heritage • Purchase nature of transaction justified high standard of diligence • Trust’s failure to act with requisite diligence when purchasing the statue • No legitimate expectation to retain the statue or obtain possible compensation • Domestic authorities had operated in legal vacuum as no binding international legal instruments were in force at the time the statue was exported and purchased by the Trust • Wide margin of appreciation in cultural heritage issues not overstepped

Prepared by the Registry. Does not bind the Court.

STRASBOURG

2 May 2024

This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of The J. Paul Getty Trust and Others v. Italy,

The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:

Marko Bošnjak, President,
Alena Poláčková,
Krzysztof Wojtyczek,
Lətif Hüseynov,
Ivana Jelić,
Gilberto Felici,
Raffaele Sabato, judges,
and Ilse Freiwirth, Section Registrar,

Having regard to:

the application (no. 35271/19) against the Italian Republic lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by the J. Paul Getty Trust and fourteen American nationals (“the applicants”), whose names are indicated in the appendix, on 28 June 2019;

the decision to give notice to the Italian Government (“the Government”) of the complaint concerning Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application;

the parties’ observations;

Having deliberated in private on 19 March 2024,

Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:

INTRODUCTION

1. The case...