Republic of Turkey v. Christie's Inc., et al., No. 21-2485 (2d Cir. 2023)
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The Republic of Turkey appealed the September 7, 2021, district court judgment. The court concluded that Turkey failed to prove its ownership of a six-thousand-year-old marble idol. The district court determined that Turkey’s claims of replevin and conversion failed and entered a declaratory judgment that all rights, title, and interest to the idol vested in Defendant. In addition, the district court held that Defendants were entitled to judgment because they established the equitable defense of laches. On appeal, Turkey argued the district court misconstrued fundamental principles of New York law in each of these holdings.
The Second Circuit affirmed, concluding that Turkey prejudiced Defendants by unreasonably delaying this action. The court explained that because Turkey had reason to know the Stargazer was its cultural patrimony in the 1990s, it had reason to investigate the artifact and assert its claim to ownership. This is not to say that sovereign nations have a standing obligation to investigate the potential theft of their dispersed artifacts. But Turkey sat on its hands despite signals from its own Ministry of Culture that the Stargazer was in New York City. Turkey’s failure to bring its claim (or even investigate it) until 2017 was unreasonable.
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