Advisory Council Decision Czernin/Vermeer

Page 2

English Translation

2 had already been handed over to Eugen Jaromir Czernin in 1924 by the decision of the National Court of Prague of 16 September 1925, in Austria with regard to the Vienna Gallery. The leave to Eugen Jaromir Ccernin was dealt with in parallel proceedings of the Civil Court in Prague and the District Court of Inner City in Vienna. The decree of Franz Jaromir Czernin (1857-1932), the brother and universal heir of the deceased, was adopted by order of the Civil Regional Court in Prague of 9 December 1925; the Inner City District Court referred to the request of Franz Jaromir Ccernin by order dated 15 December 1925. On 19 December 1926, the Gemäldegalerie entered into his resignation proceedings and, by order of 19 April 1928, he was admitted to the Gemaldegalerie in its (free) property. In contrast to the legal view of the Inner City District Court, which was apparently based on the lifting of the Fideikommis also with regard to the painting gallery located in Austria by the Czechoslovak law, the (Austrian) Supreme Court (OGH) ruled by order of 10 July 1895. On 28 October 1929, the Landgericht für Zivilrechtssachen Wien (Landesgericht ZRS Wien) held that "the repeal of the Fideikommissis in the Czechoslovak Republic did not affect the elements of Austria's law [...], and that it was the competent Fdeikommissgericht (Landegericht ZRR Wien) which, in its appeal to Rekursen, bore the Landesgericht Z RS Wien with a decision of 28 October 1928. On 3 November 1931, Fideikommiscurator Hans Sperl recured against the decision of the Inner City District Court of 19 October 1930, "to submit to the fidei jurisdiction over the components of the former Count of Chudenic's fideic commissary, in particular the [...] collection of paintings and sculptures." On 28 April 1928, he requested that the Gemäldegalerie be removed from the estate. With reference to the decision of the Supreme Court of 28 October 1930, he denied the legal force of the response in the absence of service to the Fideikomissanwärter or to a Fideikamisskurator. In a resolution of 25 January 1932, the Civil District Court of Prague saw the Gemäldegalerie as part of the substitution reduction after the 5th of September 1932, and amended the instrument of response of the Inner City District Court dated 19 April 1928 to exclude it from the Allodmögen and from the response to Eugen Jaromir Czernin. In November 1925 Eugen Jaromir Czernin died (according to the Czechoslovak legal view of the last Fideikommissar owner) and ordered the transfer of the gallery to Prague for the execution of the estate proceedings. Franz Jaromi Czernine raised the question on the grounds that the