District Court program to look at Cypriot Mosaics case

This year’s Court History and Continuing Legal Education Symposium in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana will focus on one of the “most publicized and fascinating cases to come before the court in recent memory,” according to the District Court.

Sally Zweig, John Hoover and Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Ezra Friedlander, all who participated in the case as attorneys, will speak about their experiences Nov. 22 at “From Cyprus to Indy and the Judge in Between: The Cypriot Mosaics Case and Judge James E. Noland.” Retired Magistrate Judge Kennard P. Foster, who served as magistrate on the 1989 case, Autocephalous Greek-Orthodox Church of Cyprus v. Goldberg & Feldman Fine Arts Inc., will make remarks about it from his perspective.

The case involved a collection of 6th-Century mosaics that had been stolen from a church in Cyprus in the late 1970s and subsequently sold to a Carmel, Ind. art dealer. The ensuing litigation left Judge James E. Noland to grapple with issues of which, if any, foreign government had standing in the case; whether Indiana state law or Swiss law applied; if the claimants had practiced due diligence; and what guidelines, if any, he should recommend be used by future buyers of international artwork subject to American law.

The final hour will feature a roundtable discussion about the life and career of Noland, with 7th Circuit Judge John D. Tinder moderating the panel consisting of U.S. Judges Sarah Evans Barker and Larry J. McKinney and assistant U.S. attorney Jill Julian, a former law clerk to Noland.

Registration is $50 for non-members of the court’s Historical Society; members of the Historical Society receive a complimentary registration. Space is limited. It will be held from 1 to 4:30 p.m. in the Hon. S. Hugh Dillin Memorial courtroom, Room 243, in the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, 46 E. Ohio St., Indianapolis.

RSVP by Nov. 15 to Denise Fort at [email protected]. For more information, contact Doria Lynch at [email protected] or 317-229-3729.