On October 6, 2008 I wrote that an asset search  / investigation focusing on Nazi-looted art could culminate in a Holocaust-related art restitution case.  Holocaust-era art restitution cases are also going to be discussed at the “Holocaust Era Assets Conference“, which starts tomorrow.  This conference is being held in the Czech Republic and  Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel will be one of its attending delegates.

“US lawmakers press Poland, Lithuania, on Holocaust assets” additionally explains that twenty-five U.S. legislators, (some of whom are delegates of the conference), have just executed letters in favor of restituting property stolen by the Nazis.  In New York meanwhile, the Museum of Modern Art recently moved to dismiss the Holocaust-era art restitution case of Grosz v. The Museum of Modern Art.

As I mentioned in “Laundering Holocaust-Era Loot?“, Grosz is about three paintings possessed by The Museum of Modern Art since the 1940’s and 1950’s.  The plaintiffs’ amended complaint in Grosz, alleges that the three paintings had been stolen from expressionist and Dadist painter George Grosz, due to Nazi persecution.

Also according to plaintiffs’ amended complaint: “the greatest art looting in history occurred during the reign of the National Socialists (‘Nazis’) in Germany (1933-1945)”. (Amended Complaint, at p. 2 ¶4).  Some of this Nazi-looted art is in fact, pictured below.  It had been hidden at a church in Ellingen, Germany and was discovered in 1945 by troops of the U.S. Third Army.

Click On Photo, To Enlarge

 Photo: National Archives and Records Administration

Copyright 2009 Fred L. Abrams