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Sharon, MA - A man has been charged with stealing a painting that his neighbor's family had taken out of Germany at the onset of the Holocaust and had kept for decades as an heirloom.

Steven Zaharoff, 57, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on charges that he stole a painting historians have said could be significant enough to be placed in a museum.

Police have not yet recovered the painting, however, they said the case remained under investigation.

Police contend the painting was stolen from Charles H. Marks, who was 87 when he moved from his Sharon home into a retirement community.

During the move, Marks's family realized the painting was missing.

The picture had been in Marks's family for about three-quarters of a century.

It was slashed by Nazis on "Kristallnacht" night.

Marks's family fled Berlin with few possessions; the painting was one of them. The family had it restored, though it still bore evidence of the slash mark.

Marks hung the painting in his dining room, a reminder of the suffering of Jews. He was heartbroken when it went missing.

Marks has since died. He never learned that someone, much less his next-door neighbor, was suspected of taking the painting.

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