Lawsuits filed in California over Nazi-looted art displayed in museums in Los Angeles, Auschwitz
Jewish heirs of Holocaust victims and their representatives have filed two lawsuits in California staking their claims to Nazi-looted paintings that still hang on the walls of prominent museums in Los Angeles and Auschwitz.
TL;DR
- Two lawsuits have been filed in California by heirs of Holocaust victims seeking the return of Nazi-looted paintings from museums in Los Angeles and Auschwitz.
- The lawsuits leverage new laws in California and Congress that strengthen U.S.-based claims to artworks seized during the Nazi era.
- One suit targets the Norton Simon Museum for "Adam and Eve" by Lucas Cranach the Elder, claimed by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles on behalf of art dealer Jacques Goudstikker's heir.
- Another suit, filed by the daughters of Holocaust survivor Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, demands the return of watercolors she was forced to paint for Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.
- Both museums state they legally hold title to the disputed works and intend to keep them on public display.
- California Assembly Bill 2867, signed into law in September 2024, allows California residents or their heirs to bring lawsuits for art seized during the Holocaust or persecution.
- The Norton Simon Museum asserts a federal court previously determined their proper title to the Cranach paintings, a ruling the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review.
- The Auschwitz Memorial states the watercolors painted by Gottliebova Babbitt must remain with them as historical documents of Mengele's crimes, arguing they are not 'Nazi-looted art' as she was a prisoner without ownership.