The American Senate has just passed a law (Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act or HEAR) amending the previous law in order to strengthen the means of claimants wishing to recover property that they believe was stolen by the Nazis. It was transmitted to the House of Representatives on December 11, 2025.
The current law (HEAR Act of 2016), signed into law by Barack Obama, aims to facilitate the return of works stolen by the Nazis. It establishes a limitation period of six years from the date of “effective discovery” by the applicant of the existence of the stolen property. But the assessment of this period by the courts still remains too uncertain.
Pablo Picasso, The actor (1905)
This is how the courts rejected her request for restitution, Laurel Zuckerman, heir to Paul and Alice Leffman (a German Jewish couple), maintaining that the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York improperly holds a work by Picasso, The Actor (1904-1905), stolen from his parents. The court found that she had waited too long before acting even though she had summoned the MET within the 6-year time limit.
The law under discussion reduces rejections on procedural grounds, particularly deadline grounds, to focus on the merits: Was this work stolen by the Nazis and is the applicant the rightful heir? Furthermore, the new text strengthens the rights of plaintiffs against defenders who relied on the fact that the spoliation took place in Europe to plead the application of the laws of the country concerned.
Finally, the HEAR Act was temporary. It was to cease its effects on January 1, 2027, any action brought from 2027 must again be subject to the ordinary limitation periods of the States or the federal State. The Senate Bill 1884 explicitly removes this sunset clause.
