Bolstered by New Laws, Lawsuits in Los Angeles Renew Bids for Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art
Two lawsuits filed Monday in Los Angeles seek restitution of Nazi-looted art, leveraging new statutes: a California law passed in 2024 and the federal Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2025, signed by President Trump in April. The laws aim to prevent dismissal of claims on technical grounds or due to the passage of time and allow California law to apply even when disputed works are located abroad, a shift inspired by the long-running Lilly Cassirer Neubauer heirs’ dispute with Madrid’s Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza over a Camille Pissarro. One suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court by daughters of Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, seeks the return of watercolors she was forced to paint at Auschwitz-Birkenau on orders of Josef Mengele; the Polish museum said the works must remain as documentation of Mengele’s crimes. The second suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Daniel Gryczman, seeks the Norton Simon Museum’s return of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s 16th-century diptych “Adam and Eve,” taken from Dutch Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker’s collection and later sold to Norton Simon in 1971.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Icons in Peril, Restitution Wars Escalate