Two 16th-century masterpieces on display at Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum are at the center of a renewed ownership dispute, nearly a century after the paintings passed through the hands of one of Nazi Germany’s most powerful leaders.
The nearly life-size paintings of Adam and Eve, created by German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1530, have hung inside the Norton Simon Museum for decades.
But their journey to Southern California is now at the center of a new legal battle over art taken during the Holocaust. The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit demanding that the Norton Simon return the paintings.
“They’re a set of paintings by an artist called Lucas Cranach the Elder in the 16th century. One is of Adam, one is of Eve. They were lawfully acquired by a Dutch gallery owner who had to flee Amsterdam when the Nazis invaded. After the war, his family has tried for many, many years to get the paintings back that they lawfully and rightfully owned,” said Daniel Gryczman, board chairman of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
The museum’s own provenance records show the paintings eventually passed into the hands of one of Hitler’s most powerful lieutenants before Allied forces recovered them. They were later sold to the museum’s foundation in Pasadena in 1971.
“It’s unfortunate the Norton Simon Museum, although serving the public, believes the museum’s mission continues to be served by Hitler’s second-in-command stole from a Jewish family. Other museums around the world have returned Nazi-looted art. It’s the standard the civilized world agreed upon in a conference in 1998 about Nazi stolen art,” Gryczman said.
In a statement to NBC4, the museum said the ownership dispute has already been settled in multiple courts.
“We will continue to make these important artworks accessible to the public, as we have since 1971. We are currently reviewing the complaint but refer you to the judgment issued by the U.S. District Court in 2016, affirmed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018 and which the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review in 2019.”
In those cases, the Norton Simon was deemed the sole owner of “Adam and Eve.”
But those rulings came before 2024, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new state law allowing residents or heirs to seek the recovery of art seized by Axis powers during World War II.
And while the artwork may be priceless, the Jewish Federation says that if it prevails in the case, the paintings would be sold and the proceeds used to help Holocaust survivors living in California.
“The paintings would be sold, and proceeds would be used to care for Holocaust survivors in California. There are 2500 survivors, average age of 90, 95% live below or at the poverty line, require round-the-clock care, food, meals, all sorts of social services,” Gryczman said.
A similar federal case was filed in Los Angeles last week by the daughters of a now-deceased Holocaust survivor and California-based animator who was held at Auschwitz.
That lawsuit seeks the return of watercolors depicting fellow prisoners that the artist was forced to paint for a Nazi physician nicknamed the “Angel of Death.”
Those paintings are currently held at a museum in Auschwitz.