Greenwich, CT – Judge Allows Museum to Keep Art Looted by Nazis

Greenwich, CT – A federal judge has dismissed a case brought by a Connecticut woman against the Norton Simon Museum of Art, bringing to an end dueling lawsuits over ownership of a 500-year-old pair of art masterpieces that were seized by the Nazis and in the hands of both Soviet and Dutch governments before coming to the museum.

Judge John F. Walker granted the museum a motion to dismiss four days before a scheduled hearing on the matter and without immediately giving his reasons for doing so.

The Norton Simon foundation and Marei von Saher of Greenwich had each filed lawsuits claiming they were the rightful owners to a pair of 16th Century wood panels depicting Adam and Eve that were painted by famed German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder.
The museum's argued that a California law extending the statute of limitations for heirs of Holocaust victims is unconstitutional because making amends for war injuries falls to the federal, not state, government. [AP]