LACMA fights art-theft suit

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art says it can’t be held accountable in court for an art theft committed by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918.

At issue are 25 of the 76 paintings from Moscow’s State Pushkin Museum currently on display at LACMA in a touring exhibition that runs through Oct. 13. The grandson of a Russian aristocrat sued last month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, saying that because they are stolen property, LACMA either should be prohibited from showing the works -- including paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh -- or compensated for their use.

In a filing Friday, LACMA asked for the case to be thrown out, labeling the grandson’s suit a ploy “to intimidate LACMA into paying him to go away rather than risk possible interference with a highly publicized exhibition.” The suit is meritless, LACMA attorneys argue, because the State Department has sanctioned the touring show under a law designed to smooth the way for foreign artworks to be shown in America without fear of legal attacks.

LACMA’s motion says that plaintiff Andre Marc Delocque-Fourcaud’s position is further undermined because he failed to sue museums in Houston and Atlanta that already have mounted the Pushkin Museum show.