The Washington Post notes two American museums battling in court to prevent works claimed as Nazi-loot from returning to the families who claim them as rightfully theirs.  “I find it outrageous, and I’m embarrassed,” says Oklahoma state Rep. Paul Wesselhoft of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, one of the museums refusing to return a work. “With this artwork, we have definitive proof that it was stolen. We have copies of the Nazi documents. As an Oklahoman, I think it’s a moral outrage.” (more…)

Pointing to concerns over security, the Victoria and Albert Museum has attempted to withhold information on its ownership of a devotional image of Muhammad following the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month.  “Unfortunately we were incorrect to say there were no works depicting the prophet Muhammad in the V&A’s collection,” said spokeswoman Olivia Colling. “As the museum is a high-profile public building already on a severe security alert, our security team made the decision that it was best to remove the image from our online database (it remains within the collection).” (more…)

Al-Jazeera continues the investigation into the Philippine government’s attempts at reclaiming the trove of works previously owned by the Marcos family, some of which they believe have since been stolen from the family’s homes and are now in private collections.  “We’d like to think that these paintings have been with the Marcoses from the beginning, and we believe that they were purchased using ill-gotten wealth and public funds,” Presidential Commission on Good Government leader Andres Bautista says. (more…)

The German Task Force charged with reviewing the Gurlitt trove of looted artworks has gone on record stating that the work Two Riders on the Beach by Max Liebermann should be returned to American David Toren, whose great uncle had the work stolen from his home by Nazi troops. (more…)

A Delaware judge has rejected Daniel Loeb’s lawsuit seeking to overturn Sotheby’s shareholder rights plan, which had prevented activist investors from owning more than 10% of the company.  “I find that the plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they have a reasonable probability of success on the merits of their claims,” Judge Donald Parsons wrote in his decision. “Therefore, I deny the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction.” (more…)

The New York Times addresses the publication of Thomas Piketty’s critically-lauded book on capital accumulation and income inequality this week, questioning how the work, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, can be applied to the art world, where the vast increase in high-figure spending has priced many interested parties out from buying works  “The art market has become an excuse for banking in public,” says dealer Ivor Braka. “People are displaying wealth in the most ostentatious way possible. It’s luxury goods shopping gone wild.” (more…)