Team


Dr. iur. Hannes Hartung TEP

Managing Partner / Founder of Art Wealth in 2005
Senior Lecturer at LMU Munich and KFU Graz
ICOM-WIPO-Mediator


Competences: Public international law, European law, art & culture, copyright/IP, media, real estate, inheritance law/ private clients- assets and foundations, non-profit law.

Personal

  • Born on 7 March 1973 in Ulm
  • Resident in the south of Munich in Baierbrunn since March 2010
  • Married since 2008 to Dr. med.univ. Elisabeth Hartung
  • Joint son Camille Leopold Felix
  • Enthusiastic singer, classical vocal training, enjoys hiking and skiing in the mountains, travelling near and far, passionate connoisseur of art & culture of all kinds.
  • Cosmopolitan and happy to be socially active: GalerieKanzlei in the most beautiful location in Maxvorstadt at Türkenstraße 11 promotes young art and artists‘ estates in vernissages and events (see www.GalerieKanzlei.com)

  • Voluntary support of the initiative Stolpersteine für München (Stumbling Blocks for Munich) and for actors in need in the Corona crisis (Ensemble Netzwerk , name giver of the THEMIS Vertrauensstelle des Bundesverbandes Schauspiel BFFS).
  • Member of Rotary International since 2010 (RC Munich-Martinsried)

  • Career
  • Studied law at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen,
    first state law examination 1998
  • Legal clerkship in Stuttgart, second state law examination ibid. 2000
  • Doctorate at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) on the subject of „Art theft in war and persecution“, published in the Schriften zum Kulturgüterschutz by de Gruyter Recht 2005, reviewed several times and awarded the Carl Sonnenschein Prize 2007

  • Admitted to the Stuttgart Bar in May 2002, worked in the law firms Diem & Partner, Stuttgart; Brehm & v. Moers, Munich and Spitzweg Partnerschaft, Munich, admitted to the Munich Bar in 2004.
  • Start of self-employment as partner in the tax firm Badache Weindl & Partner in Munich, April 2008
  • Second admission to the bar in Carinthia/Austria since 2021 (see www.kanwalt.com)
  • Further training as Solicitor of England and Wales at the City University of London

  • Partner of the supra-local law firm WEITNAUER Rechtsanwälte in Munich since November 2009, cf. annex JUVE Handbook 2010/2011, p. 183
  • Foundation of own law firm THEMIS (European cooperation) in September 2011
    (JUVE Legal Market News) in September 2011
  • Equity Partner at Buse Heberer Fromm in Munich 2016
  • Managing Partner THEMIS Hartung & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB with 7 professionals since 2017 ,further information at www.themis.partners

  • Lecturer for art law, copyright, media law at the
    Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (since 2006)
  • University lecturer in the university course Art Law at the Karl Franzens University Graz (since 2010) with examination and correction of examinations and
  • FernUniversität in Hagen (since 2014) with examiner appointment for Bachelor theses

  • Numerous lectures and key notes at conferences, universities and symposia since 2001 in Germany and Austria

  • Course in specialist tax law (2000 and 2015), focus on tax since 2000
  • Course Specialist Lawyer for Copyright and Media Law (2011)
  • Course Specialist Lawyer for Inheritance Law (2015)
  • Annual further training in all specialist lawyer courses

  • Registered ICOM-WIPO Mediator since 2011
  • TEP, Trust Estate Practitioner at STEP London since 2016
  • Course to become a certified AGT executor (2016)

  • Founding member of Kunstsammler e.V. with a very upscale nationwide collectors‘ circle (UHNWI), in close collaboration with Prof. Dr. Harald Falckenberg.

Specialist areas as a lawyer

  • International and European law
  • Art & culture of all categories (TOP 5 nationwide)
  • Copyright and media law (specialist lawyer course completed)
  • Inheritance law (specialist lawyer course completed), TEP, executor course AGT
  • Tax law (specialist lawyer course completed)
  • Real estate law and monument protection law
  • Non-profit institutions (NPO) and foundations
  • Reparation and restitution

Projects, clients and references

  • Cornelius Gurlitt Collection / Munich Art Trove
  • The George Economou Collection
  • Joseph Beuys Estate

  • Kunsthaus Lempertz, Ketterer Kunst, Hampel Auktionen, a.o.
    Advice and representation
  • Artists of the East Side Gallery v. Land Berlin
    Destruction of works (currently Europe-wide media coverage),
  • Most expensive carpet in the world (nationwide media coverage)

  • Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the MediaReturn/restitution of
    an Order pour le MériteFederal evaluation
    on the protection of cultural property
  • Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments
    Fiscal handout for monument owners
  • Bavarian State Painting Collections
    Legal representation
  • City of Munich
    Legal representation „Sumpflegende

  • Michael Stich Foundation, Hamburg
    General advice
  • Evangelical Hospital Foundation Lindau
    Design consultancy and refurbishment of a large retirement home

  • Advising and representing renowned media professionals, auction houses, galleries, art collectors and monument owners (in particular also abroad)
  • Further project and case descriptions also on the Internet at www.kunstanwalt.com

Publications and activities

Current

Art Law in the Munich Contract Handbook Commercial Law, CH Beck Munich, new edition 2020

Wege zur gerechten und fairen Lösung bei NS- Raubkunst, in NJW 2020, p. 718 ff.

See also at www.themis.partners/dr-hannes-hartung

Monograph


„Kunstraub in Krieg und Verfolgung“, dissertation at the University of Zurich 2004 with Prof. Dr. Kurt Siehr, M.C.L., published at Schriften zum Kulturgüterschutz, de Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2005, Detailed reviews of this work:

Dr. Michael Franz, Kunstrecht und Urheberrecht, Heft 6/ 2005, p. 191Dr.
Elena Syssoeva, Art in War, osteuropa Recht, 2006, pp. 479-481Prof.
Dr. Joachim Gruber, Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, 2006, Vol. 66 No. 2, pp. 516-519Dr.
Sebastian Harter-Hartmann, Durham University, England, in:
International Criminal Law Review 6: pp. 147-149, 2006 (in English).

Professional articles (German and English)

  • What the Welfenschatz Judgement Means for Germany, in DIE WELT of 03.02.2021
  • „International Law Seminar in The Hague: Resolution of Cultural Property Disputes“, Conference Scene of the International Law Forum, Kluwer Law International 2003

    „The Holocaust and World War II Looted Art: Arbitrated between Great Dreams and Reality“, Peace Palace Papers Volume 7, Kluwer Law International 2004

    „The Restitution of Looted Art in Europe- A Comparative Law Review“, in: Julius Schoeps/Anna-Dorothea Ludewig, „Eine Debatte ohne Ende? Looted Art and Restitution in the
  • deutschsprachigen Raum“, Berlin 2007 (including editing of the appendices and the bibliography).
  • New edition of the aforementioned contribution under the title (Berlin 2014):
  • The Restitution of Looted Art in Germany and European Member States Using the Example of the Berlin Street Scene and the Gurlitt Collection
  • A comparative law retrospective at the intersection of law, media power and morality

  • A Problem and its Heirs, feature article in DIE WELT of 26.11.2014


„Praeda bellica in bellum justum? The legal development of war-booty from the 16th century to date: A chance of bettering museum practice?“, Key note pp. 25-35, in:
War booty, A common European Cultural Heritage, Stockholm, Sweden, 2009

  • Author of the specialist chapter „Art Law“ in the Munich Contract Handbook (C.H. Beck)
  • Business Law II, Volume 3, 2015, new edition in 2019
  • Kunst oder Krempel in Handelsblatt May 2016 on the new Cultural Property Protection Act
  • Numerous articles in the newspaper DIE WELT:
    im Schließt das Kapitel Gurlitt (2017),

Own reviews


Ebling/Schulze: Kunstrecht (Handbuch), in: NJW 2007, p. 2975Fischer/Reich
: Der Künstler und sein Recht, in: NJW 2008, p. 740Nix/Hegemann/Hemke, Normalvertrag Bühne, Handkommentar, NZA aktuell 2009,
Heft 7, p. XX

Statements and interviews (excerpt)


Participation in the SWR 2 Forum (national radio) on 21.11.2006 on the topic „Druckmittel Drittes Reich? The new restitution demands on German museums“ with Professor Roth and Professor Stölzl

On the question of the recovery of cultural objects in the International Herald Tribune, issue of 27.12.2004, on the looted art debate (after dpa interview) in many national newspapers on 23/24.04.2007

Permanent freelancer for the magazine www.Kunstmarkt.com with contributions on art and cultural law topics


Nationwide coverage in the context of representing the artists of the East Side Gallery and at the „most expensive carpet in the world“ (FAZ, SZ, Welt etc.)

Nationwide television and radio coverage of the sensational discovery of Hildebrand Gurlitt’s extensive collection with statements by Hannes Hartung

Further extensive coverage and articles since 2017 at

www.themis.partners/presse/

Lecturing and teaching activities (excerpt)

Lectures, presentations and trainings

– At the Institute of Art and Law in London on 21 June 2004:
Holocaust Looted Art in German Law
– in the context of the Art and Law Seminar at the University of Passau on 1 November 2004
– in connection with the opening of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart on 22 March 2005 (company event)-
on 22 March 2007 at the ARS seminar „Art Purchase for Companies and Entrepreneurs“-
on 23 April 2007 in Potsdam „The Restitution of Looted Art in the European Member States“.

Munich Gentlemen’s Club on 13 March 2008 on the topic:
„The Restitution of Looted Art in
Germany and Europe „
Key note on the topic „Praeda bellica in bellum justum?“ at the Royal Armoury in Stockholm, 30 May 2008

Numerous lectures, including at Maastricht University, several Rotary Clubs, LMU Munich and KFU Graz between 2014 and 2020


Teaching activity within the framework of the teaching assignment in the Department of Art Studies

Introductory seminar on art and law in winter semester 2007/2008 and departmental seminars on „The Artist and His Law“ and „Culture in Legal Practice“ in summer semester 2008, winter semester 2008/2009, summer semester 2009 and summer semester 2010 at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

Overall responsibility for the legal part of the course „Master of Arts Management and Administration“ at the LMU Munich, Department of Art Studies.

Member of the management board of the European Centre for Art, Culture and Media (KuKuWiR) at
Karl Franzens University Graz, teaching and examining activities since 2010.

Memberships

RAK Munich

STEP Society of Trust and Estate Practicioners in London

Association of Catholic Lawyers, German-Israeli Lawyers‘ Association

KV, Rotary Club Munich-Martinsried

Kulturkreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft, Corporate Collecting Working Group

Appendix

Press commentary in excerpt

Portrait in dpa (printed in several newspapers, e.g. DER WESTEN) of 27.02.2014

Schwabing Art Find Lawyer Hartung and Phantom Gurlitt: United in the Love of Art

„Great, significant works of art are Hartung’s case. “

„Hartung sees himself as a fighter for arts justice“.


Berliner Zeitung: The Phantom’s Lawyer from 29.01.2014

„With Hannes Hartung, who is incidentally an art collector himself and regularly performs at concerts as a baritone, the publicity-shy Gurlitt now has a knowledgeable advocate. And the task force finally has a contact person.“

Wiener Zeitung from 30.01.2014

„But now there is movement in the case. And Gurlitt’s image is also changing. At least since his lawyer Hannes Hartung went public.“

The World from 07.12.2011

The case is special, the lawyers are appropriate, Peter Raue (70) from Berlin, Hannes Hartung (38) from Munich, two lawyers with entertainer consciousness. It is also about superlatives. About mysterious millionaires, about the crazy art world and about a lot of bad luck. (…)

The lawyer on the other side is about 30 years younger, but Hannes Hartung is by no means less self-confident than his colleague. Starting in February, he represents the East Side Gallery artists‘ group, which is defending itself against the „destruction of works“ and unauthorised reproduction of its work. To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the 1316-metre-long remains of the Wall on the Spree, which had been painted by artists in 1990, had been steam-cleaned of any paint residue. Then, for an expense allowance of 3,000 euros, they were painted anew with the same motifs.

Extensive current reporting on the Munich Stolpersteine case and Torah essay

Süddeutsche Zeitung, et al. 01.08.2015

The Süddeutsche Zeitung writes about lawyer Dr Hannes Hartung on 28 December 2015:

Hannes Hartung, on the other hand, is a lawyer whose name is otherwise associated with far more spectacular cases than that of …: The Munich expert on Nazi looted art was the first lawyer to legally represent Cornelius Gurlitt, and he is currently representing a group of Nazi victims who want to ensure that in future Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) can be laid in the Bavarian capital to commemorate them. And just before Christmas, Hartung made a name for himself in connection with the return of a bust of Diana to the Republic of Poland. The marble bust from the Lazienki Palace, an object of looted art that had been sought after since the 1950s, had turned up on the Vienna art market a few weeks ago from private ownership.

Further extensive coverage and articles since 2017 at

www.themis.partners/presse/

Offices THEMIS Hartung & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB
at Türkenstraße 11, 80333 München