LA Federation sues museum for custody of looted paintings once hoarded by Hermann Göring

The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena to recover a 16th-century diptych by Lucas Cranach the Elder, looted by the Nazis from Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker and held by Hermann Göring. Separately, the daughters of Holocaust survivor Dina Gottliebova Babbitt have sued the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum for watercolors she was forced to paint for Josef Mengele. Both suits were filed under a 2024 California law allowing refiling of previously dismissed looted-art claims.

The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, seeking the return of a life-sized oil diptych of Adam and Eve by the German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder. The paintings were seized by the Nazis in 1940 from their Jewish owner, art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, and ended up in the private collection of Hermann Göring, the Nazi air force commander. The paintings eventually reached the Norton Simon Museum in 1971. The federation stated it would use the majority of the proceeds from the sale of the art to care for Los Angeles-based Holocaust survivors living in poverty, citing a 2018 study that found one-third of Holocaust survivors in the US live below the poverty line. Separately, the daughters of Holocaust survivor Dina Gottliebova Babbitt have sued the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum to recover watercolors of Roma victims she was forced to paint for Josef Mengele. Both lawsuits were filed at the end of the filing window under a 2024 California law that permits claimants in previously dismissed lawsuits to refile for the retrieval of looted artworks. The law eliminates procedural barriers that had blocked earlier claims. Goudstikker's daughter-in-law, Marei von Saher, first sued the museum in 2007, but a 2018 ruling determined on procedural grounds that the paintings belong to the museum. The museum's spokesperson stated that courts have confirmed the foundation has proper title to the artworks and that they will continue to be accessible to the public.