Legal actions seeking the return of artworks looted by the Nazis have been initiated in California, targeting collections at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and the Auschwitz Memorial. These filings represent the first lawsuits launched following the enactment of new state and federal statutes designed to bolster restitution claims by Jewish families for artworks confiscated during World War II.
The suit against the Norton Simon Museum was lodged in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and its chair, Daniel Gryczman. The litigation demands the return of “Adam and Eve,” a pair of life-size oil-on-panel works created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1530. In a separate federal filing the same day, the daughters of Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a Holocaust survivor and animator who was imprisoned at Auschwitz, sought the return of watercolors the artist was coerced into painting for Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, also known as the “Angel of Death.” The paintings depict fellow prisoners and were produced to document Mengele’s racial experiments.
Spokespersons for both institutions have stated they maintain legal title to the pieces and intend to keep them on public display. The complaints do not disclose specific monetary valuations for the artworks.
Restitution cases involving Nazi-looted art remain a highly charged issue, balancing the intergenerational trauma experienced by Jewish families against museums’ arguments that they are preserving critical historical records. Historians estimate that between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime orchestrated the seizure of more than 600,000 artworks across Europe from Jewish collectors, families, and institutions. Many of these items are currently held in major museums globally, complicating efforts to reclaim them.
Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, noted that Marei von Saher, the sole heir of Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, transferred her rights to the federation. Goudstikker’s collection was appropriated by Hermann Göring, Hitler’s deputy, and the Cranach paintings changed hands multiple times before being acquired by the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art in the 1960s; the institution was later renamed the Norton Simon Museum. Farkas indicated that the majority of proceeds from any recovered art would support approximately 2,500 Holocaust survivors residing 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,” Farkas 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.”
Von Saher expressed gratitude for the federation’s intervention, calling the effort a significant step toward justice for victims of Nazi atrocities.
The lawsuits benefit from California Assembly Bill 2867, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2024. Authored by Democratic Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, the legislation requires that state law apply in lawsuits brought by California residents or their heirs to recover art seized during the Holocaust or other persecutions. Gabriel introduced the bill in response to a federal ruling that permitted the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid to retain a Camille Pissarro painting taken from the Cassirer family in 1939. That case is scheduled for hearing in federal court in California next month.
“It’s time for museums to do some deep introspection on whether they want to be on the right side of history,” Gabriel stated.
The Norton Simon Museum cited a unanimous 2018 federal court determination that it holds valid title to the Cranach works, a decision upheld when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in 2019. The museum explained that the paintings, originally owned by the Stroganoff family, were sold illicitly by the Soviet Union in 1931, purchased by Goudstikker, and eventually sold to the museum by a Stroganoff descendant. A museum representative affirmed that the works have been accessible to the public for nearly five decades and will continue to be displayed.
Meanwhile, Pawel Sawicki, a spokesperson for the Auschwitz Memorial, argued that the watercolors must remain at the site to serve as documentation of Mengele’s crimes. He stated that characterizing the works as “Nazi-looted art” was inaccurate because Babbitt painted them under duress as a prisoner and thus did not hold ownership. Sawicki emphasized that the portraits of Roma and Sinti victims are among the few surviving records of the physician’s experiments, warning that any removal from the collection would cause irreparable harm to the memory of Auschwitz victims.
Interesting that museums claim they are preserving history. Who decides what history gets told?
Finally, a legal pathway for these families. The Cranach paintings need to come home.