Can the New York District Attorney Seize Art in Other States?

A New York State Supreme Court issued a seizure order for artwork from Austrian artist Egon Schiele titled Russian War Prisoner. see Matter of Art Inst. of Chicago, 85 Misc. 3d 1265(A), 2025 NY Slip Op 50617(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County Apr. 23, 2025).  Even though the painting was no longer in New York and the Art institute took no action to receive or possess the painting in New York, the Court found that it has jurisdiction under CPL 20.20 because the crime of knowing possession of stolen property was the same in New York and Chicago and that there was a conspiracy to possess stolen property between the dealer that sold it in New York and the eventually the Art Institute of Chicago. Id. at 31, 32.

The Court’s approach has several problems. First, CPL 20.20 deals with jurisdiction over people and not property. Second, New York requires specific knowledge that the property is stolen. Illinois does not. The judge invented the qualifier that someone should have known the property was stolen.