Norton Simon museum in Pasadena faces new lawsuit over Nazi-looted art

A two-panel work at the Norton Simon, looted by the Nazis more than 85 years ago, remains at the center of a long legal fight. The life-size paintings called “Adam” and “Eve” depict the biblical characters and were created by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1530.

The Nazis stole the two paintings, and many others, from Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker in the Netherlands in 1940. After the war, the Dutch government sold these two works to a Russian aristocrat, who sold them to the Pasadena art museum in 1971.

A lawsuit filed on Monday in L.A. Superior Court names the museum and two related foundations as defendants.

“By pursuing the recovery of the Cranachs, we are seeking to reverse a great injustice perpetrated by the Nazi theft of a Jewish family’s property,” Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, said in a written statement. The Federation is a plaintiff in the suit.

Cranach the Elder’s work has sold for millions of dollars.

Goudstikker’s only living heir, Marei von Saher, gave the Federation the authority to file the lawsuit. If the lawsuit is successful, the Federation pledges to use the majority of the net proceeds to care for impoverished Holocaust survivors living in the L.A. area.

Adam and Eve, painted around 1530 by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder.

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Courtesy Norton Simon Art Foundation

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Von Saher has spent years trying, unsuccessfully, to get these paintings back. But this lawsuit is different. It’s filed under a 2024 California law (AB 2867) that gives people the ability to petition to recover cultural property “that was taken or otherwise lost as a result of political persecution,” according to the law.

The museum's response

Responding to the lawsuit, the Norton Simon Museum did not challenge that the painting was looted by the Nazis.

“After decades of litigation, court after court including the United States Supreme Court has confirmed that the Norton Simon Art Foundation has proper title to 'Adam' and 'Eve,'" the museum said in a written statement.

The museum is referring to a 2018 ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that since a foreign government sold the artwork, the court could not declare that sale illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court let that decision stand without reviewing it.

The Norton Simon has been pressured to negotiate with the heirs to return the work, even from the founder’s grandson, Eric Simon.

“In my opinion, it's immoral and unethical because they don't have good title,” said Joel Greenberg, founder of the nonprofit Art Ashes, which helps families of Holocaust survivors recover art looted from their ancestors.

It’s not the only high-profile case of Nazi-looted art with ties to Los Angeles. The late Los Angeles resident Maria Altmann recovered a work by Gustav Klimt that was looted from her family by the Nazis in Austria.