French senators have adopted a bill to facilitate the restitution of art looted during the colonial era, moving towards fulfilling a 2017 promise by President Emmanuel Macron. Meanwhile, Switzerland has appointed former president Simonetta Sommaruga to head a new independent panel examining claims for artworks looted during the Nazi era and colonial period.
Michael Rakowitz's survey exhibition "Allspice" at the Acropolis Museum in Athens explores themes of cultural displacement, looting, and historical narrative through works like his series "The invisible enemy should not exist" (2007–), which reconstructs looted artifacts from Baghdad's National Museum of Iraq using Arabic food wrappers and newspapers. The show also features his 2004 video "Return," documenting his effort to import Iraqi dates labeled as "product of Iraq" to the US after decades of sanctions, and includes interventions with the museum's own collection, such as a Cypriot head he linked to Assyrian art.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has re-entered a decades-long legal battle over a Camille Pissarro painting, *Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain* (1897), which was sold under duress by Lilly Cassirer Neubauer to a Nazi appraiser in 1939 for 900 Reichsmarks. The painting is now held by the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The case, originally filed in 2000 by Neubauer's son Claude Cassirer, has been continued by his heir David Cassirer, Ava's estate, and the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County. A new California law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September allows exceptions for property taken due to political persecution, and Bonta is now defending the state's authority to compel the return of stolen art to victims connected to California.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is facing a new lawsuit over Vincent van Gogh's *Olive Picking* (1889), which it sold to a Greek collector in 1972. The suit, filed by heirs of Hedwig and Frederick Stern, alleges the painting was looted from the Sterns when they fled Nazi Germany and should never have entered the Met's collection. The Met bought the work in 1956 for $125,000 and later sold it to the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens, where it is now displayed. A previous 2022 lawsuit in California was dismissed on venue grounds; the heirs are now pursuing the case in New York federal court, arguing the painting was repeatedly trafficked through the city.
The Denver Art Museum has repatriated a 1,500-year-old marble head of a bearded man to Turkey, following a successful restitution claim. The sculpture, which dates back to the fifth century BCE, was originally unearthed in the agora of the ancient city of Smyrna (modern-day Izmir) and was likely trafficked illicitly before entering the museum's collection. The artifact is now on public display at the İzmir Archaeology Museum.
"Eines der größten fotografischen Dokumente des 20. Jahrhunderts"
A New York court has concluded an eleven-year legal battle by awarding Amedeo Modigliani’s 'Seated Man with a Cane' to the heirs of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner. The ruling rejected the claims of the powerful Nahmad family, with the judge determining that Stettiner never voluntarily relinquished the work during the Nazi era. Additionally, a significant photographic archive belonging to darkroom technician Roland Haupt has surfaced, containing previously unseen World War II images by Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton.
The Bavarian Parliament has unanimously ordered a comprehensive investigation into revelations that the state returned Nazi-looted artworks to the families of high-ranking Nazi officials instead of their rightful Jewish owners. A report by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE) exposed that state-owned museums in Munich profited from these stolen works for decades, in some cases selling them back to Nazi descendants at nominal prices or keeping them in public collections.
Brazilian police raided the São Paulo branch of Almeida & Dale, a prominent gallery, on Wednesday in connection with three missing paintings by modernist Alfredo Volpi. The São Paulo State Department of Criminal Investigations (Deic) executed a search warrant regarding the works, valued at R$6.4 million (about $1.2 million), which have been the subject of a civil dispute. The artist's estate accuses gallery cofounder Carlos Dale of brokering an unauthorized sale in 2006 of the paintings, which were reported stolen in 2008. No artworks were seized, but a laptop was taken, and the gallery has denied wrongdoing, stating it acted as an intermediary in legitimate transactions before any theft report.
The U.S. Congress has passed an extension of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, a 2016 law designed to help heirs of Holocaust victims recover looted art. The new legislation aims to limit the ability of museums and other current holders to use time-based legal defenses, such as statutes of limitations, to block restitution claims, thereby pushing more cases to be decided on their factual merits.
The Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent has refused to return Gaspar de Craye's Nazi-looted *Portrait of Bishop Triest* to the heirs of its original owner, Samuel Hartveld. An independent commission found the painting was sold under duress after the German occupation of Belgium in 1940, but concluded that Hartveld and his family were later financially compensated by the city, leading MSK to retain the work. Jewish groups EJA and JID are contesting the decision, arguing that international principles mandate restitution regardless of compensation.
The estate of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner has filed a new lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court against the Nahmad family, seeking the restitution of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 painting "Seated Man With a Cane." The suit alleges that the $25 million portrait was looted by the Nazis in Paris and is currently held by the International Art Center, which the plaintiffs claim is a shell company controlled by the Nahmads. This legal action follows a 2012 dismissal of a similar claim by Stettiner’s grandson, Philippe Maestracci, due to a lack of standing.
1815, année clé de la question des restitutions d’œuvres d’art au cœur d’un ouvrage éclairant
Art historian Bénédicte Savoy has released a new book, "1815, le temps du retour," which examines the massive wave of art restitutions following the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire. Between 1794 and 1811, French revolutionary and imperial forces seized thousands of artworks and cultural objects from across Europe to fill the Louvre under the guise of creating a universal museum. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the subsequent return of these works sparked a global debate involving intellectuals and politicians regarding national identity, cultural property, and the legal status of looted heritage.
On December 11, the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA), part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., announced it is returning three Khmer period sculptures to Cambodia. The works—a 10th-century Uma, a 10th-century Harihara, and a circa-1200 Prajnaparamita—were determined to have been likely looted during Cambodia’s civil war (1967–1975), based on research with Cambodian authorities, lack of export documentation, and links to dealers known for trafficking looted antiquities.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to extend the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, which was set to expire at the end of the year. The Senate had already approved the extension, and the legislation now awaits the President's signature to become law.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art announced it will return three looted bronze sculptures to India: "Shiva Nataraja" (ca. 990), "Somaskanda" (12th century), and "Saint Sundarar with Paravai." Provenance research linked the works to art dealers known for trafficking looted antiquities. The museum partnered with the Photo Archives of the French Institute of Pondicherry in 2023, finding the bronzes had been photographed in Tamil Nadu temples between 1956 and 1959 and removed in violation of Indian laws. This follows the museum's December return of three Khmer-period sculptures to Cambodia, also determined to be looted.
ArtReview's feature 'The Museum in Crisis' presents a critical diagnosis of contemporary museums, questioning their foundational authority, purpose, and relevance. The article compiles perspectives from professionals, highlighting challenges like restitution claims, alienated audiences, and the need to dismantle colonial hierarchies embedded in language and display practices. It argues that museums must move beyond being mere preservers to become active producers of public knowledge.
Heirs of German Jewish banker and art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy have urged the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to revive their lawsuit seeking the return of Vincent van Gogh's *Sunflowers* (1888), which they claim was sold under Nazi duress. The lawsuit, filed in 2022 against Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings, argues that the painting was purchased at a 1987 Christie's auction by Sompo's predecessor, Yasuda, despite provenance indicating Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a Nazi victim. A lower court dismissed the case in 2024 for lack of jurisdiction, but the heirs contend that the painting's exhibition in Chicago in 2001 establishes sufficient legal ties to Illinois.
Heirs of Jewish banker and collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy are appealing a lower court's dismissal of their lawsuit against Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings over Vincent van Gogh's painting *Sunflowers* (1888-89), valued at $250 million. The plaintiffs—Julius H. Schoeps, Britt-Marie Enhoerning, and Florence von Kesselstatt, representing over 30 beneficiaries—claim the work was sold under Nazi pressure in 1934. Sompo bought the painting in 1987 for a record $25 million at Christie's London. The case was heard by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on 17 September 2025, under the 2016 Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act.