Seized Cuban Art -- by, Yulia Lara

As an immigrant from the extraordinary island of Cuba, now raising my young family in the United States, I know somewhere deep in my heart -- and take pride in knowing -- that Cuba will once again rise to freedom. Cuba has a rich and superb past! New collectors in the world of art need to know about this fantastic artistic heritage. An article in "El Nuevo Herald" -- Miami, Florida in February 2009 that was quite interesting. There is a law that states that no government shall have ownership of private property. Yet one of the first actions the Fidel Castro regime did was confiscate privately owned art from wealthy art collectors. Prominent mention was made of families like the Fanjul sugar dynasty as well as the Barcadi rum distillers who had important collections of Cuban, American, and European art which were seized illegally. When the bankrupt Soviet Union stopped pouring billions of dollars to prop up Cuba in the 1990's, the island economy collapsed. This resulted in the sale and resale of many of these confiscated artworks. Most ended up in auction houses and museums in France, UK, and other European countries. The main question is what will happen when this communist Cuban regime falls and the rightful owners of these pieces come looking for their art? The Herald newspaper article states, " If I were these auction houses and museums that have stolen artwork....I'd be a little nervous." What will be the process of provenance establishment? Will entities like "Art Loss Registry" play a significant role? After the demise of the Castro regime, should we collectors embrace or avoid historic Cuban artworks of questionable ownership and authenticity -- fearing that the Fanjuls, Bacardi's, or my own Lara clan may come to lay claim to an ancestral patrimony? Jewish collectors of European heritage have had success in reclaiming their Nazi-stolen works from private and government owned museums, insitutions, and other entities. The reparation of Gustav Klimt's famous golden "Adele Bloch" painting to her Los Angeles grand-nephew certainly offers international inspiration to this concept. I believe that when the dreaded regime in Cuba is finally banished, many Cuban families will seek their seized treasures.