Adam and Eve Squabble

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This diptych of life-size panels of Adam and Eve once hung in the halls of the country estate outside of Berlin that belonged to Nazi Reichsmarschall Herman Göring. Today it is the subject of a lawsuit between the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena, California, where it is now displayed, and the descendant of the Jewish owner of the painting from whom Göring “purchased” it during the Nazi period.

The diptych was painted in the 16th century by Lucas Cranach the Elder, a close friend of the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther (he was the godfather of Luther’s son) and a competitor of Albrecht Dürer (master of the print).

For 400 years the panels hung in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Kiev, Ukraine. After the Soviets moved them around in the 1920s and 30s, they auctioned them off with other works of art. The two panels ended up in the Netherlands with a Jewish collector. In a forced sale, they were “purchased” by Göring. After the war and several peregrinations, the panels were acquired by the California museum. The spouse of the last descendant of the Jewish family in the Netherlands that owned the panels before Göring confiscated them is claiming ownership of the panels. After years-long negotiations, she filed suit in 2007. The legal issues are complicated, and many are still unresolved. The quality of the paintings, however, is uncontested.

This diptych of life-size panels of Adam and Eve once hung in the halls of the country estate outside of Berlin that belonged to Nazi Reichsmarschall Herman Göring. Today it is the subject of a lawsuit between the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena, California, where it is now displayed, and the descendant of the Jewish owner of the painting from whom Göring “purchased” it during the Nazi period. The diptych was painted in the 16th century by Lucas Cranach the Elder, a close friend of the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther (he was the godfather of Luther’s son) […]