New York – Holocaust Survivor Sues Germany For Return Of Stolen Artwork

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    New York – An 88-year-old man who survived the Holocaust has filed a claim in a Germany court that states Germany is refusing to return a recently discovered piece of valuable artwork that was stolen from his family by Nazis during WWII.

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    Courthouse News Service (http://bit.ly/OlN85B) reports David Toren says the artwork, taken from his great uncle by the Nazis, was found recently with other works by Picasso, Chagall and Matisse in the Munich apartment of 81-year-old Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of Adolph Hitler’s art dealer, Hildebrand Gurlitt.

    Toren is suing the Federal Republic of Germany and the Free State of Bavaria for breach of bailment and conversion. The piece of artwork in question is called “Two Riders on the Beach” by Max Liebermann.

    Toren says after Hitler died and the end of the war came, “Two Riders,” along with other valuable works, came into the elder Gurlitt’s ownership. When Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment was raided after a 2010 tax evasion, the collection – worth more than 1 billion euro – was retrieved.

    The lawsuit states a whistleblower leaked information to the press in 2012 about the discovery.

    Toren, a former New York attorney, fled Germany in 1939 and made his way to Sweden. He says his parents were killed in the Auschwitz gas chambers in 1943.The complaint makes mention of the fact that Toren has no family treasures to pass on to his son and grandchildren other than one photograph of his parents.

    Toren says he has provided Germany and Bavaria proof of his family’s ownership of the artwork, but they still refuse to return it to him.


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    10 years ago

    I don’t understand why some much debate and effort has to go through this. It seems wild that in 2014 they have to discuss and made regulations for a plane to send back data on it’s location? Can’t this be done with a simple GPS and a transmitter? A passanger in-flight with internet access (which is rolling out in trans-atlantic flights) could easily report the location with a simple smart phone or laptop…. but a simple GPS tracking system to see real-time flight location is a whole proposal and debate? Feels like were in the 80’s..