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 Maxi-
milian 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 in-
terests as a sculptor;
Whereas both parents wanted Ludwig to be raised in the
United States, and Mrs. Staller liquidated her businesses
•HCON 237 IH
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 ac-
tivities 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 Decem-
ber 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 con-
testing 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 res-
idence, was granted upon her assurances that she would
•HCON 237 IH
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 at-
tributable exclusively to Mrs. Staller, and granted cus-
tody 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 ab-
duction 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
•HCON 237 IH
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 separa-
tion 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 ex-
pert and the public prosecutor recommended to the di-
vorce judge the immediate return of Ludwig to Mr.
Koons in New York, citing the danger of further irrep-
arable harm to the child if he were to remain in the por-
nographic 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-
•HCON 237 IH
wig’s best interest that all decisions regarding custody
and visitation in the United States be uniform and iden-
tical to those in Italy in order to ensure that both par-
ents 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 recommenda-
tions 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 re-
turn of Ludwig to New York and to the care Mr. Koons
following years of residence in Italy would cause him fur-
ther trauma, and thus, would be contrary to his best in-
terest;
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 resi-
dence 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 pro-
hibit 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 Conven-
tion on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduc-
•HCON 237 IH
tion, and the New York Convention on Children’s Rights,
which laws protect the rights of minors to move freely be-
tween the respective residences of their parents and
which give equal protection to parents of different nation-
alities;
Whereas for such violations of international law, Mr. Koons
filed a petition against the Republic of Italy with the Eu-
ropean Court of Human Rights and a preliminary deci-
sion regarding the admissibility of that petition is ex-
pected 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 re-
lief from human rights violations;
Whereas Mrs. Staller, in blatant disregard for the rec-
ommendations 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 defama-
tory 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
•HCON 237 IH
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 vio-
late 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 head-
quarters for her pornographic activities throughout the
world;
Whereas Ludwig’s continued exposure to his mother’s porno-
graphic environment and activities, and his unwilling par-
ticipation in her defamatory media campaign against Mr.
Koons, have placed the child in grave danger of irrep-
arable psychological harm, as recently confirmed by ex-
perts who have manifested concern for the minor’s dete-
riorating condition if not removed from his current envi-
ronment without delay;
Whereas all courts, both in the United States and Italy, rec-
ognized 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
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That—
(1) the Congress urges the Republic of Italy to
immediately return Ludwig Maximilian Koons to the
United States and to the custody of his father, Jef-
•HCON 237 IH
frey Koons, in accordance with the divorce judgment
of the New York Supreme Court on December 9,
1994;
(2) it is the sense of the Congress that, pursu-
ant to Article 36 of the Convention for the Protec-
tion of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,
the United States should intervene in the proceeding
pending before the European Court of Human
Rights, Jeffrey Lynn Koons v. Italy, case no. 68183/
01, to request the Republic of Italy to remedy the
violations of international law committed against
Mr. Koons and his son, Ludwig; and
(3) it is the sense of the Congress that, pending
a final decision by the Republic of Italy regarding
the permanent return of Ludwig to the United
States, the United States should request that the
Republic of Italy authorize Ludwig to visit his father
in his New York residence on a temporary basis.
Æ