Congress Expands Holocaust Art Recovery Law, Targeting Museum Defenses
Congress has moved to give new life to a law meant to help families recover art stolen during the Holocaust, while at the same time reopening a long-running battle between heirs and the institutions that still hold those works. The US House of Representatives on Monday approved an extension of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, a 2016 law designed to make it easier for victims’ descendants to bring restitution claims decades after the fact. The measure, according to the New York Times, which had already passed the Senate unanimously, now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk. Related Articles At its core, the change is about time. The original law gave heirs up to six years to file a claim after identifying a looted work, sidestepping the usual statute-of-limitations arguments that museums have often used to block cases. But courts have still, at times, leaned on the passage of decades to dismiss claims, arguing that it leaves current owners unable to mount a fair defense. The new bill tries to close that door. It would limit …
