ABSTRACT
Accelerating the trend seen in 2006, this past year saw art market participants suffering the consequences of past inattention to reasonable due diligence standards in connection with art market purchase and sale transactions and regretfully adjusting their behavior to prevent a repetition of the cycle of careless acquisition and return. During past decades, stolen antiquities and artworks looted from victims of the Nazis circulated freely in the art market, finding their way into prestigious collections, often moving sequentially from collector to collector and ultimately to a museum via donation or purchase. The consequences can be seen in the art market-related developments of the past year, as can the efforts to break the pattern. 2007 also saw more art theft victims, as plaintiffs, faulted and, in several cases, penalized for their past inattention to diligence in pursuing their losses, particularly when lost objects had been exhibited or had traded openly on the art market.
