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Adam and Eve, Cranach the Elder. Photo: Vahe Martirosyan – Flickr via Creative Commons
A California federal court of appeal ruled that two paintings in the Goudstikker collection are the legitimate property of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and should not be returned to the company. 39, heir to the Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who died from a boat on board fallen on his way to England at the beginning of the Second World War, left his collection between the hands of his staff, who sold the stock of at least 1,133 paintings for only 2.5 million guilders to the German art dealer Alois Miedl and Marshal Hermann Goering
After the war, the paintings have ended in museums around the world. In 2006, the Dutch authorities agreed to return 202 pieces to the family after years of legal wrangling
The controversial paintings – Adam and Eve of the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder – were sold to George Stroganoff-Scherbatoff, a time commander of the US Navy and descendant of the Russian aristocracy by the Dutch State in 1966.
He sold them to the museum in 1971. Eleven years ago, the beauty Goudstikker's daughter, Marei von Saher, commenced legal proceedings Sale valid
According to the LA Times, the judge's decision was based on an "act of state" which validates the property of the Dutch .
"Without a doubt, the Nazi looting of the artwork was a moral atrocity that required an appropriate government response," Judge Margaret McKeown cites. The transfer of the Dutch government to Stroganoff was carried out three times by the Dutch authorities. For all the reasons of the doctrine, we refuse the invitation to invalidate the official acts of the Netherlands.
A Von Saher lawyer stated that he would "reconsider" the decision with his client.
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