## Facts

- A medieval manuscript known as the Archimedes Palimpsest was historically associated with Greek Orthodox monastic holdings and was later catalogued in a Greek church library in Constantinople.
- The manuscript disappeared from that library in the early 1920s.
- By the 1920s, the manuscript was in France in the possession of Marie Louis Sirieix; how he obtained it was not conclusively established.
- Sirieix kept the manuscript until his death in 1957; his daughter, Anne Guersan, inherited it.
- For decades, Guersan treated the manuscript as family property, including restoring it, showing it to scholars, and exploring potential sales.
- In 1998, Guersan consigned the manuscript to Christie’s in New York for public auction.
- The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem asserted an ownership claim only after the auction was announced, alleging the manuscript had been stolen from its holdings decades earlier.
- The Patriarchate had not previously reported the loss to authorities, publicized the theft, or filed suit to recover the manuscript.
- Christie’s proceeded with the auction; the manuscript sold to an anonymous purchaser for approximately $2 million.
- The Patriarchate sued Christie’s, Guersan, and the anonymous purchaser, asserting claims functionally seeking return of the manuscript (replevin/conversion) and injunctive relief.
- Defendants moved for summary judgment, relying primarily on choice-of-law principles governing title and the equitable defense of laches.

## Issues

1. Which jurisdiction’s substantive law governed ownership and title to the manuscript (French law or New York law).
2. Whether the Patriarchate’s claims were barred by laches under New York law due to decades of delay and resulting prejudice to defendants.

## Decision

- The court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment and dismissed the Patriarchate’s claims.
- Applying New York conflict-of-laws principles, the court held French law governed the title/ownership question.
- Under French law, the Patriarchate failed to show a superior present title sufficient to defeat defendants’ interests after long, open possession in France.
- Independently, the court held the Patriarchate’s claims were barred by laches under New York equitable principles.
- The auction sale and the purchaser’s acquisition were left undisturbed.

## Legal Principles

- In a New York forum, ownership of movable property may be governed by foreign substantive law when New York conflict-of-laws analysis points to the jurisdiction with the most significant relationship to the property and the relevant conduct.
- Under New York laches doctrine, a claim may be barred where (1) the plaintiff unreasonably delays asserting a known right and (2) the delay prejudices the defendant.
- Prejudice supporting laches can include evidentiary harm from the passage of time and reliance-based changes in position by possessors and purchasers.
- Equitable defenses may defeat recovery in cultural-property disputes where the claimant took no meaningful steps for an extended period to report, publicize, investigate, or pursue recovery of allegedly stolen property.

## Conclusion

The court held that French law governed title to the manuscript and that, in any event, the Patriarchate’s decades-long inaction barred relief under New York laches, resulting in summary judgment for Christie’s, the consignor, and the purchaser and leaving the auction transfer intact.


Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem v. Christie’s Inc., 1999 WL 673347 (S.D.N.Y. 1999)