The Jewish heirs of Holocaust victims and their representatives have filed two lawsuits in California claiming their rights to paintings looted by the Nazis that still hang on the walls of prominent museums in Los Angeles and Auschwitz. The two lawsuits are the first to be filed after the recent passage of laws by California and Congress strengthening American claims over works of art that were forcibly taken from Jewish families during World War II. A lawsuit was filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and its board of directors. President Daniel Gryczman against the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena over the return of “Adam and Eve.” These are two life-size oil-on-panel masterpieces created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1530. This undated photograph provided by the Norton Simon Art Foundation on September 18, 2026 shows two oil paintings, “Adam and Eve,” painted in 1530 by Lucas Cranach the Elder, on display at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. Gerard Vuilleumier/Norton Simon Art Foundation via AP The other lawsuit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles on the same day by the daughters of the late Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a Holocaust survivor and California-based entertainer who was detained at Auschwitz. He demanded the return of watercolors of fellow prisoners that the artist was forced to paint for Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor who had earned the nickname “Angel of Death.” Spokespeople for both museums say the museums legally own the titles of the works and intend to continue showing them to the public. The lawsuits do not specify the monetary value of the paintings. The issue of Nazi-looted art is an emotionally, legally and ethically charged issue that pits Jewish families who have suffered intergenerational trauma against museums that say they are trying to preserve a painful but important chapter of history. Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime orchestrated the largest art theft in world history, confiscating more than 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 ownership 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 Göring, Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command, and changed hands several times before being sold in the 1960s to the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, which was renamed the Norton Simon Museum in honor of its benefactor. Farkas said the federation plans to use most of the net profits from recovered art to provide much-needed help to the estimated 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 finance the machine of war and death against the people,” he said. “We are honored to take on this role on behalf of the community and use the majority of the proceeds to help these elderly survivors live the final 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 significant step toward justice for Holocaust survivors and victims of Nazi-era atrocities,” he said. California Democratic Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, who represents the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, authored House Bill 2867, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2024, which requires state law to apply in lawsuits brought by California residents or their heirs to recover works of 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 preserve a multimillion-dollar Impressionist masterpiece by Camille Pissarro. That painting had been taken by the Nazis from the Cassirer family in 1939. This case, which motivated this new law, is expected to be heard in federal court in California next month. FILE – A visitor views the impressionist painting “Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie,” painted in 1897 by Camille Pissarro, on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain, May 12, 2005. AP Photo/Mariana Eliano, Archive Gabriel said it is time for museums to “do a deep introspection about whether they want to be on the side correct story.” The Norton Simon Museum issued a statement noting that a federal court in 2018 unanimously determined that the museum had proper title to Cranach’s paintings. In May 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in the case, leaving lower court rulings in place. They said Cranach’s paintings, which originally belonged to the Stroganoff family, were put up for sale in 1931 by the Soviet Union at an illicit auction in Berlin, where they were purchased by Goudstikker. After a complicated journey, the paintings were sold to the museum by a descendant of the Stroganoff family. The museum later restored and preserved the pieces. “For nearly 50 years, they have been on display at the Norton Simon Museum and will continue to be accessible to the public for years to come,” the statement said. Pawel Sawicki, spokesman for the Auschwitz Memorial, said the watercolors of Roma victims that Gottliebova Babbitt was forced to paint by Mengele to document his horrendous racial experiments and investigations, “must remain at the Memorial” to document the man’s crimes. She said these paintings should not be mischaracterized as “Nazi-looted art” because Gottliebova Babbitt painted them against her will as a prisoner and therefore did not own the watercolors. While understanding the family’s feelings, Sawicki said the portraits of the 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. “Respecting the rights of the people who created some of the documents here, we are of the opinion that any loss to the Memorial’s collections will constitute irreparable harm,” he said. “…The loss of even the smallest piece of documentation is an irreparable loss and a stain on the memory of the victims of Auschwitz.” More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press at:
