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Vienna Court demands Czech artwork seizure

  9:14

Austrian court orders seizure of famous Czech artworks over arbitration dispute between Czech state and plasma producer Diag Human

The company Diag Human, founded and owned by Czech-Swiss entrepreneur Josef Šťáva, has successfully applied to an Austrian court to order the seizure of famous Czech artworks currently on display in Vienna. The company, which processed blood plasma, has been involved in a legal dispute with the Czech Republic since 1995, the longest ever arbitration involving the state.

The news server Ekonom.cz reports that a Vienna district court upheld Diag Human’s claim on Tuesday and issued a distrainment order, which is valid immediately. According to the firm’s legal lawyer, Jan Kalvoda, the Czech state has four weeks in which to appeal against the order.

Diag Human initiated arbitration proceedings against the Czech state in 1995 after the company was squeezed out of the Czech market by rival companies Immuno a Grifols. Diag Human claims officials from the Czech Ministry of Health colluded with the rival companies and together orchestrated a media campaign to discredit Šťáva and his company. In the last round of arbitration, the Czech state was ordered to pay compensation of Kč 8.3 billion to Šťáva’s firm, of which two thirds was for interest and legal fees. The Czech state has lodged an appeal that has yet to be heard.  

The artworks that Diag Human has demanded be seized have been lent by the Moravian Gallery in Brno and are currently on display in the exhibition Dynamics – Cubism, Futurism, Kinetics and include the paintings Two Women by Emil Filla, The Dancer by Vincenc Beneš and a bronze statue by Otto Gutfreund called The Embrace.           

Diag Human lodged the seizure request to the Austrian authorities on the basis of the New York Convention on the enforcement of foreign arbitration rulings. According to the convention, however, arbitration proceedings must be definitely decided before a ruling can be enforced in a state which is a signatory of the convention. And this is not exactly the case in the Diag Human versus Czech state legal battle.  

According to Czech Television, Diag Human will attempt to persuade the Austrian courts that the ruling in August 2008 has come into legal effect because the appeal lodged by the Czech state was signed by the then minister of health, Tomáš Julínek, and director of the Office for Representation of the State in Asset Affairs, Miloslav Vaněk, who the company’s lawyers claim did not have the legal authority to do so. The Czech state insists that the appeal was valid.

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