Neutral Citation Number: [2005] EWHC 1089 (Ch) Case No: HC04C03885 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE CHANCERY DIVISION Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL Date: 27th May 2005 Before : THE VICE CHANCELLOR --------------------Between : Her Majesty's Attorney-General - and The Trustees of the British Museum Claimant Defendant ----------------------------------------Mr William Henderson (instructed by The Treasury Solicitor) for the Claimant Christopher McCall QC (instructed by Ian A Doubleday) for the Defendant Mr Guy Newey QC and Miss Clare Ambrose (instructed by Harbottle & Lewis) for The Commission for Looted Art in Europe – Intervening with the leave of the Court Hearing dates: 24th May 2005 --------------------- Judgment The Vice-Chancellor : Introduction 1. The Trustees of the British Museum (“the Trustees”) were incorporated by s.14 British Museum Act 1753 26 Geo II cap.22. By s.9 of the same Act it was provided that the “several collections, additions and library” of the Museum “shall remain and be preserved...for public use to all posterity”. Subject to various powers of disposal conferred on the Trustees by subsequent enactments, none of which is presently relevant, the obligation imposed by s.9 of the 1753 Act remained in force until the enactment of the British Museum Act 1963. 2. In 1946 the Trustees bought at auction at Sotheby’s for the aggregate sum of nine guineas three Old Master drawings, namely The Holy Family by Niccolo dell’Abbate, An Allegory on Poetic Inspiration with Mercury and Apollo by Nicholas Blakey and Virgin and infant Christ, adored by St Elizabeth and the infant St John by Martin Johann Schmidt. At about the same time the Keeper of Prints at the British Museum, Mr Campbell Dodgson, acquired a fourth, St Dorothy with the Christ Child by a