California’s district court has emphatically denied a motion to dismiss a case about the ownership of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s life-size panels of Adam and Eve (around 1530). This court ruling is the latest twist in a bitter legal battle that began in Federal Court in 2007 when Marei von Saher, the heir of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, filed for ownership of the paintings which were part of a collection of more than 1,200 works owned by Goudstikker, who fled the Netherlands in 1940 after the Nazi invasion. The paintings are currently in the possession of the Norton Simon Museum, which together with the Norton Simon Art Foundation, filed a motion with the California district court to dismiss the heirs’ claim, arguing that the complaints were time-barred under California’s code of civil procedure. The court found that: “The fact that the statute of limitations may have expired as to an owner’s claim against the thief (or prior possessor) is irrelevant.” Because a “thief cannot convey valid title no matter how much time has passed, the subsequent possessor’s acquisition of stolen property constitutes a new conversion”, according to the court papers.
