Heirs of Holocaust victims filed two separate lawsuits in California on Monday, September 14, 2026, seeking the return of artwork they allege was seized by the Nazi regime. One lawsuit targets the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena regarding two 16th-century paintings, while the other seeks the return of watercolors held by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. These filings are the first initiated under new state and federal laws designed to assist families in reclaiming cultural property taken during World War II.
The legal actions follow the enactment of Assembly Bill 2867, signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2024, which requires state law to be applied in Holocaust-era art recovery cases. Additionally, the federal Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, signed by President Donald Trump and updated in 2025, eliminated statute-of-limitations deadlines for such claims. These legislative changes were prompted in part by a court ruling that allowed a Spanish museum to keep a Nazi-confiscated painting despite claims from the original owners' heirs.
In the first case, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and heir Marei von Saher sued the Norton Simon Museum for the return of "Adam and Eve," a pair of life-size panel paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The federation stated that the works were seized from Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker by Hermann Goring and later purchased by the museum in the 1960s. The museum, however, cited a 2018 federal court ruling confirming its legal ownership, noting the paintings were purchased from a descendant of the Stroganoff family, who the museum claims were the original owners before an unauthorized 1931 Soviet sale.
The second lawsuit was filed in federal court by the daughters of late Holocaust survivor Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt against the Auschwitz Memorial. The suit demands the return of watercolor portraits Gottliebova Babbitt was forced to paint of fellow captives for Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. A spokesperson for the Auschwitz Memorial, Pawel Sawicki, stated that the works must remain at the memorial as historical evidence of atrocities. Sawicki argued the items should not be categorized as "Nazi-looted art" because they were created by an inmate under duress, rather than being stolen from a private collection.
For claimants, these legal changes mean they will no longer face technical dismissals based on how much time has passed since the theft. Under the updated federal law, families now have six years to file a claim from the moment they identify the current possessor of their property. For museums and the public, the outcome of these cases could change what is visible in galleries and how institutions verify the history of their collections. The Auschwitz Memorial argues that removing such items would cause "irreparable harm" to the preservation of the historical record of the Holocaust.
The cases follow new legal standards for how California courts handle international ownership disputes involving state residents. By mandating the application of state law over foreign or federal interpretations that previously favored current possessors, the new statutes shift the procedural balance toward original owners and their descendants. A federal court hearing in California related to the Cassirer family lawsuit, which catalyzed these legislative changes, is scheduled for October 2026. The Norton Simon Museum and the Auschwitz Memorial have both indicated they will contest the claims to maintain their current collections.