II 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6130 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 8, 2016 

Received 

AN ACT 

To provide the victims of Holocaust-era persecution and their 

heirs a fair opportunity to recover works of art confiscated or misappropriated by the Nazis. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Holocaust Expropri3 ated Art Recovery Act of 2016’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) It is estimated that the Nazis confiscated or 

7 otherwise misappropriated hundreds of thousands of 

8 works of art and other property throughout Europe 

9 as part of their genocidal campaign against the Jew10 ish people and other persecuted groups. This has 

11 been described as the ‘‘greatest displacement of art 

12 in human history’’. 

13 (2) Following World War II, the United States 

14 and its allies attempted to return the stolen 

15 artworks to their countries of origin. Despite these 

16 efforts, many works of art were never reunited with 

17 their owners. Some of the art has since been discov18 ered in the United States. 

19 (3) In 1998, the United States convened a con20 ference with 43 other nations in Washington, DC, 

21 known as the Washington Conference, which pro22 duced Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. One of 

23 these principles is that ‘‘steps should be taken expe24 ditiously to achieve a just and fair solution’’ to 

25 claims involving such art that has not been 


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1 restituted if the owners or their heirs can be identi2 fied. 

3 (4) The same year, Congress enacted the Holo4 caust Victims Redress Act (Public Law 105–158, 

5 112 Stat. 15), which expressed the sense of Con6 gress that ‘‘all governments should undertake good 

7 faith efforts to facilitate the return of private and 

8 public property, such as works of art, to the rightful 

9 owners in cases where assets were confiscated from 

10 the claimant during the period of Nazi rule and 

11 there is reasonable proof that the claimant is the 

12 rightful owner.’’. 

13 (5) In 2009, the United States participated in 

14 a Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague, 

15 Czech Republic, with 45 other nations. At the con16 clusion of this conference, the participating nations 

17 issued the Terezin Declaration, which reaffirmed the 

18 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi19 Confiscated Art and urged all participants ‘‘to en20 sure that their legal systems or alternative processes, 

21 while taking into account the different legal tradi22 tions, facilitate just and fair solutions with regard to 

23 Nazi-confiscated and looted art, and to make certain 

24 that claims to recover such art are resolved expedi25 tiously and based on the facts and merits of the 


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1 claims and all the relevant documents submitted by 

2 all parties.’’. The Declaration also urged participants 

3 to ‘‘consider all relevant issues when applying var4 ious legal provisions that may impede the restitution 

5 of art and cultural property, in order to achieve just 

6 and fair solutions, as well as alternative dispute res7 olution, where appropriate under law.’’. 

8 (6) Victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs 

9 have taken legal action in the United States to re10 cover Nazi-confiscated art. These lawsuits face sig11 nificant procedural obstacles partly due to State 

12 statutes of limitations, which typically bar claims 

13 within some limited number of years from either the 

14 date of the loss or the date that the claim should 

15 have been discovered. In some cases, this means that 

16 the claims expired before World War II even ended. 

17 (See, e.g., Detroit Institute of Arts v. Ullin, No. 06– 

18 10333, 2007 WL 1016996 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 31, 

19 2007).) The unique and horrific circumstances of 

20 World War II and the Holocaust make statutes of 

21 limitations especially burdensome to the victims and 

22 their heirs. Those seeking recovery of Nazi-con23 fiscated art must painstakingly piece together their 

24 cases from a fragmentary historical record ravaged 

25 by persecution, war, and genocide. This costly procVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:05 Dec 11, 2016 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6130.RDS H6130

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1 ess often cannot be done within the time constraints 

2 imposed by existing law. 

3 (7) Federal legislation is needed because the 

4 only court that has considered the question held that 

5 the Constitution prohibits States from making ex6 ceptions to their statutes of limitations to accommo7 date claims involving the recovery of Nazi-con8 fiscated art. In Von Saher v. Norton Simon Museum 

9 of Art, 592 F.3d 954 (9th Cir. 2009), the United 

10 States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit invali11 dated a California law that extended the State stat12 ute of limitations for claims seeking recovery of Hol13 ocaust-era artwork. The Court held that the law was 

14 an unconstitutional infringement of the Federal Gov15 ernment’s exclusive authority over foreign affairs, 

16 which includes the resolution of war-related disputes. 

17 In light of this precedent, the enactment of a Fed18 eral law is necessary to ensure that claims to Nazi19 confiscated art are adjudicated in accordance with 

20 United States policy as expressed in the Washington 

21 Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the 

22 Holocaust Victims Redress Act, and the Terezin 

23 Declaration. 

24 (8) While litigation may be used to resolve 

25 claims to recover Nazi-confiscated art, it is the sense 


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1 of Congress that the private resolution of claims by 

2 parties involved, on the merits and through the use 

3 of alternative dispute resolution such as mediation 

4 panels established for this purpose with the aid of 

5 experts in provenance research and history, will yield 

6 just and fair resolutions in a more efficient and pre7 dictable manner. 

8 SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 

9 The purposes of this Act are the following: 

10 (1) To ensure that laws governing claims to 

11 Nazi-confiscated art and other property further 

12 United States policy as set forth in the Washington 

13 Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the 

14 Holocaust Victims Redress Act, and the Terezin 

15 Declaration. 

16 (2) To ensure that claims to artwork and other 

17 property stolen or misappropriated by the Nazis are 

18 not unfairly barred by statutes of limitations but are 

19 resolved in a just and fair manner. 

20 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 

21 In this Act: 

22 (1) ACTUAL DISCOVERY.—The term ‘‘actual 

23 discovery’’ means knowledge. 

24 (2) ARTWORK OR OTHER PROPERTY.—The 

25 term ‘‘artwork or other property’’ means— 


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1 (A) pictures, paintings, and drawings; 

2 (B) statuary art and sculpture; 

3 (C) engravings, prints, lithographs, and 

4 works of graphic art; 

5 (D) applied art and original artistic assem6 blages and montages; 

7 (E) books, archives, musical objects and 

8 manuscripts (including musical manuscripts 

9 and sheets), and sound, photographic, and cine10 matographic archives and mediums; and 

11 (F) sacred and ceremonial objects and 

12 Judaica. 

13 (3) COVERED PERIOD.—The term ‘‘covered pe14 riod’’ means the period beginning on January 1, 

15 1933, and ending on December 31, 1945. 

16 (4) KNOWLEDGE.—The term ‘‘knowledge’’ 

17 means having actual knowledge of a fact or cir18 cumstance or sufficient information with regard to a 

19 relevant fact or circumstance to amount to actual 

20 knowledge thereof. 

21 (5) NAZI PERSECUTION.—The term ‘‘Nazi per22 secution’’ means any persecution of a specific group 

23 of individuals based on Nazi ideology by the Govern24 ment of Germany, its allies or agents, members of 


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1 the Nazi Party, or their agents or associates, during 

2 the covered period. 

3 SEC. 5. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi5 sion of Federal or State law or any defense at law relating 

6 to the passage of time, and except as otherwise provided 

7 in this section, a civil claim or cause of action against a 

8 defendant to recover any artwork or other property that 

9 was lost during the covered period because of Nazi perse10 cution may be commenced not later than 6 years after the 

11 actual discovery by the claimant or the agent of the claim12 ant of— 

13 (1) the identity and location of the artwork or 

14 other property; and 

15 (2) a possessory interest of the claimant in the 

16 artwork or other property. 

17 (b) POSSIBLE MISIDENTIFICATION.—For purposes of 

18 subsection (a)(1), in a case in which the artwork or other 

19 property is one of a group of substantially similar multiple 

20 artworks or other property, actual discovery of the identity 

21 and location of the artwork or other property shall be 

22 deemed to occur on the date on which there are facts suffi23 cient to form a substantial basis to believe that the art24 work or other property is the artwork or other property 

25 that was lost. 


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1 (c) PREEXISTING CLAIMS.—Except as provided in 

2 subsection (e), a civil claim or cause of action described 

3 in subsection (a) shall be deemed to have been actually 

4 discovered on the date of enactment of this Act if— 

5 (1) before the date of enactment of this Act— 

6 (A) a claimant had knowledge of the ele7 ments set forth in subsection (a); and 

8 (B) the civil claim or cause of action was 

9 barred by a Federal or State statute of limita10 tions; or 

11 (2)(A) before the date of enactment of this Act, 

12 a claimant had knowledge of the elements set forth 

13 in subsection (a); and 

14 (B) on the date of enactment of this Act, the 

15 civil claim or cause of action was not barred by a 

16 Federal or State statute of limitations. 

17 (d) APPLICABILITY.—Subsection (a) shall apply to 

18 any civil claim or cause of action that is— 

19 (1) pending in any court on the date of enact20 ment of this Act, including any civil claim or cause 

21 of action that is pending on appeal or for which the 

22 time to file an appeal has not expired; or 

23 (2) filed during the period beginning on the 

24 date of enactment of this Act and ending on Decem25 ber 31, 2026. 


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1 (e) EXCEPTION.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to 

2 any civil claim or cause of action barred on the day before 

3 the date of enactment of this Act by a Federal or State 

4 statute of limitations if— 

5 (1) the claimant or a predecessor-in-interest of 

6 the claimant had knowledge of the elements set forth 

7 in subsection (a) on or after January 1, 1999; and 

8 (2) not less than 6 years have passed from the 

9 date such claimant or predecessor-in-interest ac10 quired such knowledge and during which time the 

11 civil claim or cause of action was not barred by a 

12 Federal or State statute of limitations. 

13 (f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 

14 shall be construed to create a civil claim or cause of action 

15 under Federal or State law. 

16 (g) SUNSET.—This Act shall cease to have effect on 

17 January 1, 2027, except that this Act shall continue to 

18 apply to any civil claim or cause of action described in 

19 subsection (a) that is pending on January 1, 2027. Any 

20 civil claim or cause of action commenced on or after that 

21 date to recover artwork or other property described in this 

22 Act shall be subject to any applicable Federal or State 


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1 statute of limitations or any other Federal or State de2 fense at law relating to the passage of time. 

Passed the House of Representatives December 7, 

2016. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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