Norton Simon Museum Countersues Heirs Over Cranach Looted by Nazis

The Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, arguing it remains the proper owner of Lucas Cranach the Elder's 16th-century diptych Adam and Eve — a painting looted by the Nazis, sold to the museum's founder for $800,000, and contested by the dealer's heirs for decades.

The suit answers a September claim by the Jewish Federation-Council of Greater Los Angeles and its board chair Daniel Gryczman, who sued for the painting's return. Marei von Saher, heir to the Dutch dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who owned the diptych before the war, has already sued unsuccessfully for the works and has now transferred her rights to the federation.

What does the new filing change?

The museum's core argument rests on precedent. In August 2016, after 12 years of litigation, the same Los Angeles court ruled the museum was the rightful owner of the Cranach. The Supreme Court declined to reopen the case. By that record, the museum says the matter is closed.

The heirs see it differently. Their September suit relies on amendments to the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, which bar US defendants in restitution conflicts from using certain defenses — including statutes of limitation and the "act of state" doctrine. Those are precisely the defenses that carried the museum to victory in 2016. Whether the new amendments apply retroactively to a case the Supreme Court already refused to hear is the question the countersuit now forces into the open.

A chain of title with many links

The museum's filing lays out a complicated history — and the complications cut both ways.

• 1931: The Soviet Union auctions a collection from the aristocratic Stroganoff family; Goudstikker buys the Cranach.
• 1940: The Nazis invade the Netherlands. Goudstikker leaves behind roughly 1,200 works and dies in an accident on board ship while fleeing to the US.
• His widow Desirée inherits the company, which the Nazis force to sell its assets. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring buys the Cranach and other pieces.
• Allied forces recover the works and restore them to the Dutch government. Desirée declines to petition for the Cranach's return — she did not wish to run an art dealership — though she wins restitution for other property.
• 1961–1966: A Stroganoff heir claims the Cranach and a Rembrandt as Soviet loot. In 1966 he agrees to buy the Cranach, then sells it to the Norton Simon Art Foundation for $800,000.

The painting has hung on public view ever since. That is the museum's strongest practical claim. Whether continuous public display offsets a forced Nazi-era sale is exactly what a court must now weigh under the amended HEAR Act.

Decades of refusal, on two continents

After Desirée Goudstikker died in 1996, Von Saher revived the family's claims and began seeking the Cranach's return in 1998. The Dutch government refused, saying the matter had been rightfully resolved. When the Netherlands adopted a revised restitution policy in 2001, Von Saher claimed other works in 2004 — not the Cranach. The Dutch state returned some artworks while again stating the matter had been properly settled.

In 2007, Von Saher sued the Norton Simon directly. The museum says she was denied three times.

A representative for the Jewish Federation did not immediately answer a request for comment on the museum's lawsuit.

The stakes now extend beyond Pasadena. If the amended HEAR Act lets heirs reopen claims that survived a Supreme Court challenge, museums holding contested wartime works — many acquired through similarly layered chains of title — may find that no final judgment is ever quite final.