A recent unpublished Appellate Division opinion, In re Bierstadt Paintings Charitable Trust, No. A-0529-20 (App. Div. Jul. 20, 2021), demonstrates how ancient legal doctrines remain steadfast despite changes in societal perspective caused by historical reassessment and reckoning.

In 1919, Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, art collector and philanthropist, donated two eight-by-twelve-foot paintings by well-known German-American landscape artist Albert Bierstadt to the city of Plainfield through a charitable trust with the city acting as trustee. For the last century, the paintings, “The Landing of Columbus” and “Autumn in the Sierras,” have been on display in various rooms in the city’s library and municipal building.