Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts v. Railway Express Agency, Inc.

DEVITT, Chief Judge.

This is an action to recover for the claimed breach of a contract of carriage of a 2,500-year-old art object from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Basel, Switzerland. The art object, a bas-relief valued by its owner, Plaintiff Borowski, at $125,000, was delivered to the defendant with specific instructions for carriage by air from Minneapolis to Switzerland. The defendant caused it to be sent by rail from Minneapolis to New York, and by air, via Pan American Airways, to Basel. Upon its arrival there, it was found to be broken into several pieces.

Although the plaintiff,…