Holocaust heirs file California lawsuits to recover Nazi-looted artworks from museums

New lawsuits filed in California

Heirs and representatives of Holocaust victims have filed two lawsuits in Los Angeles courts to recover artworks taken during the Second World War. The actions represent the first legal challenges mounted under new California state and United States federal legislation enacted to strengthen restitution claims for cultural property seized by the Nazi regime. In Los Angeles Superior Court, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and its board chair Daniel Gryczman sued the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena over two 1530 panel paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Simultaneously, the daughters of the late Auschwitz survivor Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt filed an action in Los Angeles federal court seeking watercolor portraits held by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Neither legal complaint specifies a monetary valuation for the contested pieces.

The dispute over Cranach masterpieces

The Norton Simon Museum lawsuit centers on "Adam" and "Eve," life-size panel paintings originally part of the collection of Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. Nazi official Hermann Göring seized the works in 1940 after Goudstikker fled Amsterdam. Allied forces recovered the paintings and transferred them to Dutch authorities, who later sold them to an heir of the Stroganoff family asserting a claim dating to the Russian Revolution. The Stroganoff heir subsequently sold both works to the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art in the 1960s. For nearly two decades, Goudstikker's family challenged that transaction, but a United States federal appeals court rejected their claim in 2018 under the act of state doctrine. Marei von Saher, Goudstikker's sole heir, assigned her legal rights to the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles under the new California statute.

Charlene von Saher, Goudstikker's granddaughter, explained the decision to transfer the claims to the local nonprofit organization.

They are California residents and they can bring this claim to benefit Holocaust survivors. That's a mission that's very important to my mother and I, to my whole family.

Watercolors created at Auschwitz

The second lawsuit involves watercolor portraits created by Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a California animator who was imprisoned at Auschwitz during the war. Nazi doctor Josef Mengele forced Babbitt to paint portraits of fellow Romani captives to document his racial experiments. Representatives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum maintain that the institution holds lawful title to the portraits and will continue to display them. Museum spokesman Paweł Sawicki stated that the works serve as rare physical documentation of Mengele's crimes and should remain at the memorial site. Sawicki noted that the portraits were created during imprisonment rather than owned by Babbitt beforehand, adding that losing them would cause an irreversible loss to the memory of Auschwitz victims.

Restitution scope and survivor aid

Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime seized more than 600,000 artworks from Jewish families, collectors, and public collections across Europe. Many of those cultural items remain in prominent museums worldwide, creating persistent legal battles over provenance and ownership. Representatives for both defendant institutions maintain that their acquisitions remain legally valid. If the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles succeeds in recovering and selling the Cranach panels, president and chief executive Rabbi Noah Farkas stated that the net proceeds will fund care, food, and social services for approximately 2,500 Holocaust survivors residing in the Los Angeles area.