Norton Simon Museum can keep Nazi-looted Cranachs, US court rules
THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Matin Bailey
A US court has rejected a claim for a pair of Lucas Cranach the Elder paintings of Adam and Eve at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. The claim came from Marei von Saher, the daughter-in-law of the Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. The Cranachs, dating from around 1530, were seized by the Nazi leader Hermann Göring in a forced sale in 1940. They were recovered by the Allies at the end the Second World War and returned to the Dutch government. The Goudstikker heirs failed to submit a claim in the Netherlands before a 1951 deadline. In 1966 the Cranachs were sold by the Dutch government to George Stroganoff-Sherbatoff, a former Russian aristocrat and then an American. He, in turn, sold the pictures to the Norton Simon Museum in 1971. They have recently been valued at $24m. [More]
By Matin Bailey
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| Cranach's Adam and Eve (around 1530) |
