IV

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 237

Expressing the sense of the Congress urging the Republic of Italy to safely

and immediately return Ludwig Maximilian Koons to the custody of

his father in New York.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEPTEMBER 24, 2001

Mr. LAMPSON submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was

referred to the Committee on International Relations

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress urging the Republic

of Italy to safely and immediately return Ludwig Maximilian Koons to the custody of his father in New York.

Whereas Jeffrey Lynn Koons and Anna Elena (Ilona) Staller

were married and had a son, Ludwig Maximilian, who

was born in New York on October 29, 1992;

Whereas before the marriage, the spouses agreed that Mrs.

Staller would no longer engage in activities in the field

of pornography and erotic entertainment, in order to

dedicate her time to the family in New York, where Mr.

Koons maintained his residence and primary business interests as a sculptor;

Whereas both parents wanted Ludwig to be raised in the

United States, and Mrs. Staller liquidated her businesses
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in Rome, Italy, and applied for permanent residency in

the United States with the intention of becoming a

United States citizen;

Whereas Mrs. Staller, while residing in New York with her

family, went on a temporary visit with Ludwig to Rome

on October 11, 1993, and subsequently left him in Rome

in the care of a stranger while she traveled to Ecuador

to participate in an erotic show, thereby breaching her

parental duties and breaking her promise to cease all activities as an erotic performer;

Whereas following Mrs. Staller’s refusal to return Ludwig to

his habitual residence in New York and in light of her

resuming her activities as an erotic performer, Mr. Koons

initiated divorce proceedings against Mrs. Staller before

the Supreme Court of the State of New York on December 27, 1993;

Whereas the New York Supreme Court issued a temporary

order on January 17, 1994, which provided that Ludwig

could not be removed from the State of New York during

the divorce proceeding, and that both parents would have

temporary joint custody of Ludwig;

Whereas Mrs. Staller returned to New York and on February

4, 1994, filed an appearance in the divorce proceeding

whereby she accepted the jurisdiction of the New York

Supreme Court to decide the parties’ divorce without contesting Mr. Koons’ request to dissolve the marriage;

Whereas Mrs. Staller’s petition to the New York Supreme

Court for temporary relief, including attorney’s fees,

costs of litigation, and the right to live in the marital residence, was granted upon her assurances that she would
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not remove Ludwig from the jurisdiction of the State of

New York;

Whereas, while the proceeding was pending, Mrs. Staller

eluded security guards and border control officials and

fled the United States with Ludwig on June 9, 1994,

thereby committing an international kidnapping through

the illegal transfer of a minor, for which she was indicted

by the Rome prosecutor’s office;

Whereas Mr. Koons obtained a final divorce on December 9,

1994, from the New York Supreme Court, which ruled

that the fault of the breakdown of the marriage was attributable exclusively to Mrs. Staller, and granted custody of Ludwig to Mr. Koons;

Whereas following months of hiding, during which time Mr.

Koons had no idea of his son’s well-being or whereabouts,

Mrs. Staller commenced a separation action against Mr.

Koons before the Civil Tribunal of Rome in an effort to

overturn the decision of the New York Supreme Court

awarding custody to Mr. Koons, and to legitimize her abduction of the minor;

Whereas Mr. Koons moved to dismiss the separation action

on the grounds that the Civil Tribunal of Rome lacked

jurisdiction since the parties had already obtained a final

divorce;

Whereas before reaching a final decision, the Civil Tribunal

of Rome awarded temporary custody of Ludwig to Mrs.

Staller;

Whereas after almost 3 years of litigation, the Civil Tribunal

of Rome finally granted Mr. Koons’ motion to dismiss the

separation action on October 3, 1997, holding that the

separation action was improper on the grounds that the
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divorce judgment of the New York Supreme Court had

already dissolved the bonds of matrimony between the

parties;

Whereas the unreasonable delay by the Civil Tribunal of

Rome to grant Mr. Koons’ motion to dismiss the separation action made it possible for Mrs. Staller to retain

Ludwig illegitimately for several years in Italy, despite

her commission of a serious crime and her lack of fitness

as a custodial parent;

Whereas following the dismissal of the separation action,

Mrs. Staller initiated yet another action before the Civil

Tribunal of Rome, contesting the custody decision of the

New York Supreme Court;

Whereas at the conclusion of a detailed psychiatric evaluation

of the parties and the child, both the court-appointed expert and the public prosecutor recommended to the divorce judge the immediate return of Ludwig to Mr.

Koons in New York, citing the danger of further irreparable harm to the child if he were to remain in the pornographic environment in which Mrs. Staller had chosen

to raise him;

Whereas, on February 13, 1998, the Civil Tribunal of Rome

entered a judgment affirming the divorce judgment of the

New York Supreme Court on December 9, 1994, and its

awarding of permanent custody of Ludwig to Mr. Koons

in his New York residence, while providing for visitation

rights by Mrs. Staller both in the United States and in

Italy;

Whereas the New York Supreme Court subsequently granted

a petition by Mr. Koons to modify the divorce decree

granted in December 1994, holding that it was in Lud-
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wig’s best interest that all decisions regarding custody

and visitation in the United States be uniform and identical to those in Italy in order to ensure that both parents could be afforded the further protection of the

Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International

Child Abduction;

Whereas following Mrs. Staller’s appeal of the divorce action,

on September 23, 1998, the Court of Appeals of Rome

overturned the decision of the Tribunal, and awarded

custody of Ludwig to Mrs. Staller, while prohibiting the

child from leaving the Italian territory;

Whereas, in awarding custody of Ludwig to Mrs. Staller, the

Court of Appeals of Rome disregarded the recommendations of the American and Italian court-appointed experts

who were unanimously in favor of Mr. Koons, and based

its decision on the unsupported contention that the return of Ludwig to New York and to the care Mr. Koons

following years of residence in Italy would cause him further trauma, and thus, would be contrary to his best interest;

Whereas by setting aside the decision of the Civil Tribunal

of Rome, the Court of Appeals of Rome failed to consider

that Ludwig had been up-rooted from his family residence in New York and was only in Italy because Mrs.

Staller had committed an international kidnapping;

Whereas the decision of the Court of Appeals of Rome to prohibit Ludwig, a United States citizen from birth, access

to the United States constitutes a serious breach by Italy

of international treaties and principles of law, including

those contained in the European Convention on Human

Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduc-
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tion, and the New York Convention on Children’s Rights,

which laws protect the rights of minors to move freely between the respective residences of their parents and

which give equal protection to parents of different nationalities;

Whereas for such violations of international law, Mr. Koons

filed a petition against the Republic of Italy with the European Court of Human Rights and a preliminary decision regarding the admissibility of that petition is expected by the Court in October 2001;

Whereas pursuant to Article 36 of the Convention for the

Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

of the Council of Europe, the United States has a right

to intervene in proceedings before the European Court of

Human Rights because its citizens are parties seeking relief from human rights violations;

Whereas Mrs. Staller, in blatant disregard for the recommendations of the experts, has violated Ludwig’s right

to privacy by involving him in numerous interviews on

television and in the press as part of a massive defamatory media campaign against Mr. Koons, aimed at

swaying public opinion in her favor during the pending

custody dispute in Italy;

Whereas after 7 years of proceedings in Rome on the charge

of kidnapping, Mrs. Staller was convicted by the Rome

Court of Appeals on May 29, 2001, for kidnapping her

son from his habitual residence in New York in 1994, but

the Court of Appeals did not have the power to order the

return of Ludwig;

Whereas following a judgment of the Civil Tribunal of Rome

dated May 31, 2001, which held that Mrs. Staller was
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liable for repeatedly publishing defamatory statements on

television and in the press, Mr. Koons has petitioned two

Italian officials, the Commissioner of Privacy and the

Commissioner of Communications, to denounce the media

companies who had collaborated with Mrs. Staller to violate his son’s right to privacy;

Whereas Ludwig has incurred substantial harm as a result of

Italy’s decision to allow Mrs. Staller to keep Ludwig in

her residence in Rome, which, despite the warnings of the

child psychiatrists, she continues to utilize as the headquarters for her pornographic activities throughout the

world;

Whereas Ludwig’s continued exposure to his mother’s pornographic environment and activities, and his unwilling participation in her defamatory media campaign against Mr.

Koons, have placed the child in grave danger of irreparable psychological harm, as recently confirmed by experts who have manifested concern for the minor’s deteriorating condition if not removed from his current environment without delay;

Whereas all courts, both in the United States and Italy, recognized that the family residence was in New York; and

Whereas the Department of Justice has been unsuccessful in

its attempts to bring Ludwig back to the United States:

Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That—

3 (1) the Congress urges the Republic of Italy to

4 immediately return Ludwig Maximilian Koons to the

5 United States and to the custody of his father, Jef-
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1 frey Koons, in accordance with the divorce judgment

2 of the New York Supreme Court on December 9,

3 1994;

4 (2) it is the sense of the Congress that, pursu5 ant to Article 36 of the Convention for the Protec6 tion of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,

7 the United States should intervene in the proceeding

8 pending before the European Court of Human

9 Rights, Jeffrey Lynn Koons v. Italy, case no. 68183/

10 01, to request the Republic of Italy to remedy the

11 violations of international law committed against

12 Mr. Koons and his son, Ludwig; and

13 (3) it is the sense of the Congress that, pending

14 a final decision by the Republic of Italy regarding

15 the permanent return of Ludwig to the United

16 States, the United States should request that the

17 Republic of Italy authorize Ludwig to visit his father

18 in his New York residence on a temporary basis.

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