Nazi-era art restitution law gives heirs enforceable claims to stolen property.

Evidence

In her amicus brief she points to the return of art objects “plundered from the Jews of Europe by the Nazis and the Vichy regime” as an example of why this act of repatriation is both possible and necessary. Two laws—one in France, the other in Germany—allowed victims and their heirs to lay claim to such property. As recently as 2017, an American couple was ordered to return a Camille Pissarro painting to the heirs of the original Jewish owner. The couple did not know, when they purchased the art piece, that it had been stolen as the result of “a crime against humanity”—the persecution of Jews during World War II—and that the act of restitution, or returning the artwork to the person originally harmed as a result, was necessary to begin repairing that harm. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1215

Categorization

• XREF: The 2017 Pissarro restitution case is the classic good-faith-purchaser-against-heirs precedent for stolen cultural property — connects to broader stolen-property doctrine.