Holocaust survivors’ heirs sue California museums for return of Nazi-looted art

Two legal actions have been initiated in California by representatives and heirs of Jewish Holocaust victims seeking the recovery of paintings seized by Nazis that currently reside in renowned institutions in Auschwitz and Los Angeles.

These filings mark the first legal challenges mounted following fresh state and federal legislation designed to bolster claims in the U.S. regarding cultural property taken from Jewish families during World War II.

Filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, one action brought by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles alongside its board chair Daniel Gryczman targets the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, demanding the return of "Adam and Eve," a pair of 1530 life-size panel paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

A second action, submitted the same day in Los Angeles federal court by the daughters of late Holocaust survivor Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a California animator held at Auschwitz, demands the surrender of watercolor portraits.

The artist was coerced into creating these images of fellow captives for Josef Mengele , the Nazi doctor known as the "Angel of Death."

Spokespersons representing the institutions state that the museums retain valid legal title to the paintings and plan to maintain public displays. Specific monetary valuations are not stated in the legal complaints.

Tensions over Nazi-confiscated artwork pit the descendants of Jewish families navigating generational trauma against cultural institutions seeking to preserve material evidence from a dark historical period.

The Nazi regime carried out history's largest plunder between 1933 and 1945, stripping Jewish owners, collectors, and public institutions across Europe of more than 600,000 artistic items.

Decades later, numerous creations remain hanging in international institutions, complicating restitution efforts far beyond basic ownership disputes.

Marei von Saher, sole heir to Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, assigned her legal rights to the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, led by president and CEO Rabbi Noah Farkas.

The pair of panel works had been taken from Goudstikker's holdings by Hermann Goring, Adolf Hitler's second-in-command, before passing through several hands and ultimately being purchased in the 1960s by the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, later renamed the Norton Simon Museum after its major benefactor.

Farkas stated that the federation intends to direct most net financial recoveries toward providing crucial assistance to approximately 2,500 Holocaust survivors residing throughout the Los Angeles region.

"These are incredibly beautiful European masterpieces stolen from a Jewish family to enrich the Nazi party and fund the war and death machine against the people," Farkas noted.

"It's our honor to take on this role on behalf of the community and use most of the proceeds to help these elderly survivors live out the last years of their lives in dignity, comfort and peace – something their family members were denied during the Holocaust."