A bipartisan bill to reset the statute of limitations on Nazi-looted art claims made by Holocaust survivors and their heirs passed the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday morning.
The Holocaust Expropriated Art Restitution (HEAR) Act would help ensure that procedural hurdles for Holocaust-era stolen art claims—principally legal constraints concerning elapsed time since the theft occurred—do not disqualify heirs’ claims.
Texas senator John Cornyn, one of the measure’s cosponsors, offered substitute text restraining the bill’s applicability. The amendment, which he characterized as a result of discussions with art museums, limits the proposed law’s ability to protect an heir who knew there was a claim to be made and yet hesitated to make it. The committee adopted his language.
“After 1999 if you knew about your claim and where the art was and had an opportunity to sue but did not, your claim would not benefit from the HEAR Act,” Senator Cornyn read. He further clarified that “The HEAR Act does not create any new causes of action.”
What it does do is help ensure that these cases, derived from an unsurpassed evil, are tried on the merits.
Legal advocates for Nazi-looted art claimants accept that working with museums is also essential to the difficult, delicate process of Nazi-looted art restitution.
After the HEAR Act was introduced in the Senate, THE WEEKLY STANDARD considered the timeliness and significance of this legislation:
