[MSN] The heir of a Jewish art dealer Goudstikker whose entire collection was looted by Nazi troops during World War II is suing a US museum that acquired two of the stolen paintings more than 35 years ago.

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Heir of Jewish art dealer sues US gallery over Nazi loot 
Posted on donderdag 3 mei 2007 (EST) 


The heir of a Jewish art dealer whose entire collection was looted by Nazi
troops during World War II is suing a US museum that acquired two of the
stolen paintings more than 35 years ago.  

NEW YORK (AFP) - Marei von Saher, the daughter-in-law of noted art dealer
Jacques Goudstikker, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Norton Simon
Museum in Pasadena, California, her lawyers said in a statement issued
Wednesday. 

Von Saher and the museum had been in talks over the paintings for some years
but the two parties failed to reach a settlement, the lawyers said. 

At stake are two life-size paintings of Adam and Eve by 15th century artist
Lucas Cranach the Elder, which Von Saher's lawyers said were among the most
important works in Goudstikkers collection of more than 1,300 artworks. 

The paintings, most of them Old Masters today worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars apiece, were looted in 1940 when Nazi troops invaded the
Netherlands. While some of the collection has been returned, many paintings
remain missing. 

Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering was among the officers who looted
Goudstikker's gallery, taking some works back to Germany. 

The two paintings in the current dispute were acquired by the Norton Simon
Museum in or about 1971, according to Von Saher's lawyers, who have
challenged the museum's contention that it has fair title to the paintings. 

Last year the Dutch government returned around 200 paintings that had been
looted from the Goudstikker collection to Von Saher. Around 30 of them were
sold at auction in New York last month, fetching almost 10 million dollars. 

Goudstikker was forced to abandon his collection when he fled the
Netherlands in 1940. However, a notebook in which he recorded details of
over 1,000 of his works has proved invaluable in the search for the lost
paintings. 

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