Lawsuits filed in California over Nazi-looted art displayed in museums in Los Angeles, Auschwitz

September 19, 2026 / 5:52 PM EDT / AP

Jewish heirs of Holocaust victims and their representatives have filed two lawsuits in California staking their claims to Nazi-looted paintings that still hang on the walls of prominent museums in Los Angeles and Auschwitz.

The two lawsuits are the first to be filed after the recent passage of laws by California and Congress, which strengthen U.S.-based claims to artworks that were forcibly taken from Jewish families during World War II.

One lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and its board chair Daniel Gryczman against Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena for the return of "Adam and Eve." These are two life-size oil-on-panel masterpieces created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1530.

The other lawsuit was filed in federal court in L.A. the same day by the daughters of the late Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a Holocaust survivor and California-based animator who was held in Auschwitz. It demanded the return of watercolors of fellow prisoners that the artist was forced to paint for Josef Mengele, a Nazi physician who had earned the nickname the "Angel of Death."

Spokespersons for both museums say…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/