About the Lawsuit

Baron Mór Lipót Herzog assembled one of Europe’s great private collections of art and the largest collection in Hungary prior to World War II.  However, the Herzog family’s legacy as patrons of the arts came to a sudden halt during the Hungarian Holocaust, when the Hungarian government, assisted by the Nazi regime in Germany, systematically annihilated its Jewish population and plundered their personal property and cultural treasures.

On July 27, 2010, heirs to the Herzog Collection filed a lawsuit against Hungary to seek the return of artworks illegally held hostage by the country.  The suit is widely regarded by art experts as the world’s last unresolved Holocaust art claim of this magnitude.  The complaint involves over 40 works with a combined value over $100 million, including masterworks by El Greco, Francisco de Zurbaran, and Lucas Cranach the Elder.

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