A Lucas Cranach the Elder painting, *Cupid complaining to Venus* (1526–27), once hung in Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment, according to a report by the Art Newspaper. The work was identified in a 1940s photograph published in a 1978 furniture catalog and later in a 2023 article by art historian Birgit Schwarz, who confirmed Hitler's ownership via a 2006 discovery of an album at the Library of Congress. After World War II, American journalist Patricia Lochridge took the painting from a warehouse in Berchtesgaden and smuggled it to the US. The National Gallery in London acquired it in 1963 from A. Silberman Galleries, which falsely claimed it came from the 1909 auction buyer's heir; it had actually been purchased from Lochridge.
The story matters because it highlights the ongoing challenges of provenance research for artworks with Nazi-era histories, particularly those acquired through forced sales or seizures from Jewish collectors. No restitution claims have been made for this painting, and the National Gallery maintains it purchased the work in good faith while welcoming further information. The case underscores how looted or coerced art can remain in major museum collections for decades, with murky ownership records complicating efforts to address historical injustices.