Time Running Out for Justice on Nazi-Looted Art
It is time for Congress to pass the new HEAR Act and for museums to deliver provenance transparency, writes Gideon Taylor, the president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization.
In 1938, Paul and Alice Leffmann, a Jewish couple from Germany, made a desperate decision. Fleeing Nazi persecution, they entrusted a treasured Pablo Picasso painting to a non-Jewish German acquaintance, hoping it would survive the Second World War even if they might not.
The painting, The Actor (1904), has been hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1952. In 2016, Laurel Zuckerman, the Leffmanns’ heir, brought a case seeking its return, but her claim was rejected by the courts.
The Leffmanns ultimately negotiated the sale of the work—under duress, like so many forced sales of that era.
Gideon Taylor, the president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, calls for Congress to pass the new HEAR Act and for museums to deliver provenance transparency.
Author's summary: Justice for Nazi-looted art is running out of time.
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