NO FREE LUNCH FOR RAUL CASTRO OR VLADIMIR PUTIN: Withdraw S. 3155, the “Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act” Immediately

Dear Senators:

By this letter, I am asking you to withdraw S. 3155, the “Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act” from consideration by the Senate.

S. 3155’s aim is to completely immunize from suit cultural property confiscated or looted by a foreign sovereign or its agents, and subsequently loaned to a U.S. institution.  This bill will therefore explicitly recognize that all cultural property seized, confiscated or looted by the Bolshevik government, the subsequent Soviet government and by the Castro regime in Cuba, then loaned for display in U.S. institutions will be unencumbered by claims from the victims of those regimes, thus depriving them from being heard in U.S. courts.

S. 3155 constitutes an outrageous concession to Vladimir Putin and to Raul Castro, for whom legal peace for art loans remains a top diplomatic priority, and that the American museum lobby is more than willing to bring about so that it has access to priceless paintings held by State Russian and Cuban institutions. Why cater to the whims of these totalitarian governments, and trample the rights of untold numbers of victims of looting by creating a safe haven for looted cultural property in the United States?

We know that you will do the right thing by opposing this outrageous bill and seeking its withdrawal from any further consideration, review, amendments or vote. I thank you in advance for your very important leadership on this issue.

Respectfully submitted,

Distribution List:

U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK)

U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN)

U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL)

U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA)

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD)

U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS)

U.S. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ)

U.S. Senator Dan Coats (R-IN)

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD)

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR)

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AL)

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-ID)

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)

U.S. Senator Benjamin Sasse (R-NE)