When the modern wave of claims against museums to recover paintings “displaced” during the Nazi era began, I, as an academic, approached the claims cautiously because I assumed that our esteemed institutions would not have knowingly profited from the spoliation of property belonging to millions of persecuted refugees. I was wrong. I have come to understand, based on objective, historically sound records, that a significant number of our museums during and in the aftermath of the Holocaust actively acquired art that they knew or should have recognized likely came from Jewish homes and businesses. These museums acquired this exquisite art despite widespread knowledge of Nazi looting and governmental warnings about the infection of the art market. Now, museums are using American courts to shut down inquiries into such art’s history by blocking claims on technical grounds, contrary to their own ethics guidelines and U.S. executive policy.

The Supreme Court is poised to review multiple writs for certiorari this year in Nazi-looted-art cases. It has requested the Solicitor General to weigh in on one pending petition concerning the California legislature’s ability to insure that its courts welcome survivors and heirs seeking to recover their art. More petitions have been filed, and more are possible. The museums that have fought claims in U.S. federal courts include, among others, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Norton Simon Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Toledo Museum of Art. I focus on museums because museums are breaking their own ethics codes and causing the U.S. government to break its international commitments by invoking our courts to resolve Holocaust-era-art claims on technical grounds rather than on the merits. Although some collectors, auction houses, and dealers have also acted unethically, it is not necessary to delve into claims implicating those entities to make my point.

Some nations have fought similar claims in our courts concerning art indisputably stolen from Jews, including Austria Hungary, Most of the claims are still in the courts, with petitions for certiorari pending in several of the cases. Ironically, on December 13, 2010, Poland, which has had a poor restitution record, was the beneficiary of a civil forfeiture action filed by the U.S. government to recover a painting that had been stolen from a Polish museum during World War II. Perhaps these actions suggest a new hope for restitution in eastern Europe.