Hannes Hartung
Dr. iur. Hannes Hartung TEP, Managing Partner; Rechtsanwalt (RAK München) in Germany and Austria; Adjunct Professor (LMU Munich, KFU Graz, FernUniversität Hagen); ICOM-WIPO Mediator.
Hannes Hartung is an attorney/ Rechtsanwalt in Germany since 2002 and Member of the Bar in Carinthia/ Austria since 2021. He is the Founder and Managing Partner of THEMIS Hartung & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB with offices in Munich, Berlin, Osnabruek and Bad Kleinkirchheim. He is a founding member of the German Art Collectors Association and currently member of the board of Kunstsammler e.V.
Hannes is an international Art Lawyer for more than 20 years and received his J.D. doctorate in 2004 at the University of Zurich on "Kunstrecht in Krieg und Verfolgung / art looting in war and persecution" (published at de Gruyter Recht Berlin in 2005). This dissertation was quoted countless times, repeatedly reviewed in academic publications and was awarded in 2007 with the Carl-Sonnenschein-Price.
Hannes has overseen and represented reputable Art Law cases, including but not limited the collection of Cornelius Gurlitt (so-called Schwabinger Kunstfund/ Munich Art Trove), in which he could lift the confiscation of the Gurlitt Collection through a procedural agreement in 2014. Hannes saved the "Swamp Legend" by Paul Klee in the Lenbachhaus for the City of Munich, he represented the former owner of the "most expensive carpet in the world" and artists of the East Side Gallery. He could prevent the registration of 524 illustrations by Otto Dix from the George Economou Collection in the list nationally valuable cultural heritage. In 2017 he successfully represented the Joseph Beuys Estate in Dusseldorf in the first big case of the new Kulturgutschutzgesetz. He successfully represented the Republic of Poland in the restitution of a Diana Bust (Antoine Houdon) from the art market in Vienna (2015) and a Marczin painting from the art market in 2019. He could win a case at the Bundesgerichtshof in a very important case about and against Ersitzung in 2019 after a burglary of a Purrmann painting in Stuttgart. Currently he is representing the English collector Christian Levett in a Landmark case dealing with helmets looted from Saragossa in Spain at courts.
Since 2006 he is consistently Senior Lecturer for International Art Law at the Universities of Munich (LMU), Graz (KFU, since 2010) and Hagen (since 2014), in which he also oversees Bachelor thesis.
In 2011 Hannes became listed Mediator for Art and Cultural Heritage in the international list of ICOM (International Museum Association) and WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). He is a Trust and Estate Practicioner (TEP) in London since 2016. He has a reliable knowledge of English Law- he was admitted to study with English bachelor students for the Master of English Law and legal practice at BPP University in London.
Currently Hannes is involved in high profile international restitution cases, including the representation of a mayor bank in a mediation for a important 50 Mio painting and in high profile art transactions. He also has a long expertise from many cases dealing with cultural property protection and monument protection.
Jurisdiction: Germany, Austria