The Conflicting Obligations of Museums Possessing Nazi-Looted Art

During the Nazi regime, much of Europe’s art was pillaged. This Note addresses the conflicts faced by museums when an original owner or heir of artwork brings an ownership claim against a piece in the museum’s collection. Because of their fiduciary duties, museums are encouraged to protect trust assets. Museums can protect their assets from ownership claims with statutes of limitations and laches defenses, which grow stronger with the passage of time. On the other hand, professional codes of conduct encourage museums to work with heirs when there is a claim of ownership to find a mutually agreeable solution. This Note argues that because museum trustees are given discretion, it is reasonable to follow professional ethical guidelines and thus fulfill their duty of care. When the ownership claim is valid, museums should follow the ethical guidelines and work with the heirs to find an amenable solution. When the ownership claim is invalid, however, museums are under no ethical obligation to forego litigation and work with the heirs. If museums decide to pursue litigation when the claim is valid, though, then that behavior is unethical

A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating in the Netherlands

We discovered a highly virulent variant of subtype-B HIV-1 in the Netherlands. One hundred nine individuals with this variant had a 0.54 to 0.74 log10 increase (i.e., a ~3.5-fold to 5.5-fold increase) in viral load compared with, and exhibited CD4 cell decline twice as fast as, 6604 individuals with other subtype-B strains. Without treatment, advanced HIV-CD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimeter, with long-term clinical consequences-is expected to be reached, on average, 9 months after diagnosis for individuals in their thirties with this variant. Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence