Heirs seek return of Holocaust-era art from museums
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Heirs of Holocaust victims filed lawsuits in the United States seeking the return of artwork they claim was stolen from their families during World War II.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the daughters of a Holocaust survivor are both pursuing claims against museums in California. The Federation demands the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena return two paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder, originally part of a collection seized by Hermann Göring.
The daughters of Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a former Auschwitz prisoner, ask for the return of watercolors she was forced to paint of fellow prisoners under the direction of Josef Mengele. Museum representatives maintain they have legal ownership of the works and plan to continue displaying them. However, the Auschwitz Museum argues the portraits Babbitt created should remain part of its collection as evidence of Mengele’s crimes, stating the artist did not own the works herself as a prisoner.
Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany confiscated over 600,000 works of art from Jewish families, collectors, and museums across Europe, many of which remain in collections today. The Jewish Federation intends to use any net proceeds from recovered artwork to support approximately 2,500 Holocaust survivors in the Los Angeles area.
