New laws trigger a fresh legal fight over Nazi-looted art in Los Angeles and Auschwitz museums

Gerard Vuilleumier/Norton Simon Art Foundation/AP

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 .

This pair of lawsuits are the first to be filed after the recent passage of laws by California and Congress, which strengthen U.S.-based claims to artwork that were forcibly taken from Jewish families during World War II.

One lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and its board chair Daniel Gryczman against Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena for the return of “Adam and Eve.” These are two life-size oil-on-panel masterpieces created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1530.

The other lawsuit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles the same day by the daughters of the late Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a Holocaust survivor and California-based animator who was held in Auschwitz. It demanded the return of watercolors of fellow prisoners that the artist was forced to paint for Josef Mengele, a Nazi physician who had earned the nickname the “Angel of Death.”

Spokespersons for both museums say the museums legally hold titles to the works, and intend to continue displaying them to the public. The lawsuits don’t specify the monetary value of the paintings.

The issue of Nazi-looted art is an emotional, legally and ethically charged topic that pits Jewish families that have suffered inter-generational trauma against museums that say they are trying to preserve a painful, yet important, chapter of history. Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime orchestrated the largest art theft in world history, seizing over 600,000 works of art across Europe from Jewish families, collectors and museums. Decades later, many of these masterpieces reside in prominent museums around the world, making the push for their recovery more complex than a simple property dispute.

Rabbi Noah Farkas is president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, the organization to which Marei von Saher, sole heir of Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, has signed over her rights. The paintings were seized from Goudstikker’s collection by Hermann Goring, Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command and changed a number of hands before being sold in the 1960s to the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, which was renamed Norton Simon Museum in honor of its benefactor.

Farkas said the federation plans to use most of the net proceeds from the recovered art to provide much-needed help to the about 2,500 Holocaust survivors living in the Los Angeles area.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Marei von Saher, in a statement, said she is grateful to the Jewish organization for taking up her family’s cause.

“This effort represents a meaningful step toward justice for Holocaust survivors and victims of Nazi-era atrocities,” she said.

California Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills, wrote Assembly Bill 2867, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2024, which requires that the state law must apply in lawsuits brought by California residents or their heirs to recover art seized during the Holocaust or during other acts of persecution. Gabriel, who co-chairs the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, introduced the legislation in response to a federal court ruling, which allowed the state-owned Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid to keep a multimillion-dollar Camille Pissarro impressionist masterpiece .

Mariana Eliano/AP/File

Cassirer Family Trust via AP

That painting had been taken by the Nazis from the Cassirer family in 1939. This case, which prompted this new law, is expected to be heard in federal court in California next month.

Gabriel said it’s time for museums to “do some deep introspection on whether they want to be on the right side of history.”

Norton Simon Museum released a statement pointing out that a federal court in 2018 unanimously determined that the museum had proper title to the Cranach paintings. In May 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in the case , leaving in place lower court rulings.

They said the Cranach paintings, which originally belonged to the Stroganoff family, were put up for sale in 1931 by the Soviet Union in an illicit auction in Berlin where they were purchased by Goudstikker. After a complicated journey, the paintings were sold to the museum by a Stroganoff family descendant. The museum later restored and preserved the pieces.

“For nearly 50 years, they have been on view at the Norton Simon Museum and will continue to be accessible to the public for years to come,” the statement said.

Pawel Sawicki, a spokesperson for the Auschwitz Memorial, said the watercolors of Roma victims that Gottliebova Babbitt was forced to paint by Mengele to document his horrendous experiments and racial research, “must remain in the Memorial” to document the man’s crimes. He said these paintings must not be mischaracterized as “Nazi-looted art” because Gottliebova Babbitt painted them against her will as a prisoner and therefore didn’t have ownership of the watercolors.

While he understands the family’s sentiments, Sawicki said the portraits of Roma and Sinti victims are among the few remaining documents of Mengele’s criminal experiments and should be treated as unique documents related to the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

“While fully respecting the rights of people who created some of the documents here, we are of the opinion that any loss in the collections of the Memorial will constitute irreparable harm,” he said. “ … The loss of even the smallest part of the documentation is an irreparable loss and blemish on the memory of the victims of Auschwitz.”

Joel Greenberg, founder of Art Ashes, a Philadelphia-area nonprofit that helps Jewish families track down and recover Nazi-looted art, said in addition to the California law, President Donald Trump signed into law and updated the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025. This new law permanently eliminated the expiration date to allow Holocaust survivors and their heirs to indefinitely pursue the recovery of these works of art.

Greenberg said the new federal law gave families the right to reclaim their art for up to six years from the time they find out in whose possession they are.

“These new laws mean that technical defenses will no longer stick in court,” he said. “Every case will be heard on its merits.”

He said the new legislation also ensures that these Jewish families have their day in court and a fair process to determine ownership of the stolen art.

Gerard Vuilleumier/Norton Simon艺术基金会/AP

大屠杀受害者的犹太后裔及其代表在加利福尼亚州提起两起诉讼，声称对纳粹掠夺的画作拥有所有权，这些画作至今仍悬挂在洛杉矶和奥斯维辛的著名博物馆的墙上。

这两起诉讼是加利福尼亚州和国会最近通过法律后提起的首批诉讼，这些法律加强了美国对二战期间从犹太家庭强行夺走的艺术品的索赔权。

周一，大洛杉矶犹太人联合会及其董事会主席丹尼尔·格里奇曼向洛杉矶高等法院提起诉讼，控告帕萨迪纳的诺顿·西蒙博物馆归还《亚当与夏娃》。这两幅真人大小的木板油画杰作由老卢卡斯·克拉纳赫于1530年创作。

另一起诉讼于同一天在洛杉矶联邦法院提起，原告是已故的迪娜·戈特利博娃·巴比特的女儿们。迪娜·戈特利博娃·巴比特是一位大屠杀幸存者，也是一位居住在加利福尼亚州的动画师，曾被关押在奥斯维辛集中营。诉讼要求归还巴比特被迫为纳粹医生约瑟夫·门格勒（绰号“死亡天使”）绘制的狱友水彩画。

两家博物馆的发言人均表示，他们拥有这些作品的合法所有权，并计​​划继续向公众展出。诉讼中并未明确指出这些画作的价值。

纳粹掠夺艺术品的问题是一个充满情感、法律和伦理争议的话题，它将遭受代际创伤的犹太家庭与声称要保护这段痛苦却又重要的历史篇章的博物馆对立起来。1933年至1945年间，纳粹政权策划了世界历史上规模最大的艺术品盗窃案，从欧洲各地的犹太家庭、收藏家和博物馆手中掠夺了超过60万件艺术品。几十年后，其中许多杰作收藏于世界各地的著名博物馆，这使得追回这些艺术品的努力远比简单的财产纠纷复杂得多。

诺亚·法卡斯拉比是洛杉矶犹太人联合会的主席兼首席执行官，荷兰犹太艺术品经销商雅克·古德斯蒂克的唯一继承人玛丽·冯·萨赫尔已将其权利转让给了该组织。这些画作曾被阿道夫·希特勒的副手赫尔曼·戈林从古德斯蒂克的收藏中没收，几经易手，最终在20世纪60年代被出售给帕萨迪纳现代艺术博物馆。该博物馆后来更名为诺顿·西蒙博物馆，以纪念其捐赠者。

法卡斯表示，该联合会计划将追回艺术品所得的大部分净收益用于为居住在洛杉矶地区的约 2500 名大屠杀幸存者提供急需的帮助。

“这些都是美轮美奂的欧洲艺术杰作，它们从一个犹太家庭被掠夺，用来充实纳粹党的腰包，资助其针对人民的战争和杀戮机器，”他说。“我们很荣幸能代表社区承担这项责任，并将大部分收益用于帮助这些幸存的老人安享晚年，让他们有尊严、舒适、平静地度过余生——这是他们的家人在大屠杀期间被剥夺的。”

玛丽·冯·萨赫尔在一份声明中表示，她感谢犹太组织为她的家人伸张正义。

她说：“这项努力代表着为大屠杀幸存者和纳粹时期暴行的受害者伸张正义的重要一步。”

加州众议员杰西·加布里埃尔（Jesse Gabriel，民主党，伍德兰山选区）撰写了第2867号议案，该议案于2024年9月由州长加文·纽森签署生效。该议案规定，加州居民或其继承人提起诉讼，要求追回在大屠杀或其他迫害行为期间被没收的艺术品时，必须适用州法律。加布里埃尔是加州立法机构犹太人党团的联合主席，他提出这项法案是为了回应一项联邦法院的裁决。该裁决允许位于马德里的州立蒂森-博内米萨国家博物馆保留一幅价值数百万美元的卡米耶·毕沙罗印象派杰作。

Mariana Eliano/美联社/档案照片

卡西尔家族信托基金（通过美联社）

那幅画作于 1939 年被纳粹从卡西尔家族手中夺走。促成这项新法律出台的这起案件预计将于下个月在加利福尼亚州联邦法院开庭审理。

加布里埃尔表示，博物馆是时候“认真反思一下，他们是否想站在历史正确的一边”。

诺顿·西蒙博物馆发表声明指出，联邦法院于2018年一致裁定该博物馆对克拉纳赫的画作拥有合法所有权。2019年5月，美国最高法院拒绝介入此案，维持了下级法院的判决。

他们说，克拉纳赫的画作原属于斯特罗加诺夫家族，1931年苏联在柏林举行了一场非法拍卖，将画作出售，最终被古德斯蒂克购得。几经辗转，这些画作最终由斯特罗加诺夫家族的后裔卖给了博物馆。博物馆后来对这些画作进行了修复和保存。

声明称：“近 50 年来，这些展品一直在诺顿·西蒙博物馆展出，未来几年也将继续向公众开放。”

奥斯维辛纪念馆发言人帕维尔·萨维茨基表示，戈特利博娃·巴比特被迫为记录门格勒骇人听闻的实验和种族研究而绘制的罗姆人受害者水彩画“必须留在纪念馆”，以记录门格勒的罪行。他强调，这些画作不应被错误地描述为“纳粹掠夺的艺术品”，因为戈特利博娃·巴比特是在囚犯身份下违背意愿创作的，因此她并不拥有这些水彩画的所有权。

萨维茨基表示，虽然他理解家属的感受，但这些罗姆人和辛提人受害者的肖像画是门格勒罪恶实验仅存的少数文献之一，应该被视为与奥斯维辛集中营历史相关的独特文献。

他说：“我们充分尊重部分文献作者的权利，但我们认为，纪念馆藏品的任何损失都将造成无法弥补的损害。……即使是最小一部分文献的遗失，也是对奥斯维辛集中营受害者记忆的不可弥补的污点。”

费城地区非营利组织“艺术灰烬”（Art Ashes）的创始人乔尔·格林伯格表示，除了加州法律之外，唐纳德·特朗普总统还签署并更新了2025年《大屠杀被掠夺艺术品追回法案》。该组织致力于帮助犹太家庭追踪和追回纳粹掠夺的艺术品。这项新法律永久取消了追回艺术品的截止日期，允许大屠杀幸存者及其继承人无限期地追回这些艺术品。

格林伯格表示，新的联邦法律赋予了家属在得知艺术品被谁占有后最多六年内追回艺术品的权利。

他说：“这些新法律意味着技术性辩护将不再奏效。每个案件都将根据其案情本身进行审理。”

他说，新立法还确保这些犹太家庭有机会在法庭上讨回公道，并通过公平的程序确定被盗艺术品的归属权。