Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 1884, the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025, or the HEAR Act.

As the lead House Democratic sponsor of this bipartisan legislation, I am proud to have helped bring together my colleagues to ensure this bill is passed and sent to the President's desk.

During the Holocaust, the Nazis stripped Jewish families of countless works of art, culture, and heritage. The effects of these atrocities are still being felt today by survivors and their families.

In 2016, former Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and I introduced the first HEAR Act, which was a landmark bill that aimed to aid these victims and their families in recovering their rightful property, a small act of light in the memory of the darkest period in human history. I am grateful that Congress passed that measure unanimously and that President Obama signed it into law.

Unfortunately, time has demonstrated that the original HEAR Act was not sufficient. In addition to the bill's impending expiration, more than 100,000 of the over 600,000 works of art looted by the Nazis remain unrecovered. We must confront this unacceptable and repugnant reality, which continues to allow entities and individuals to profit off the Jewish people's pain.

We must reaffirm that, in the United States, every family member with a credible claim deserves to have their day in court, with their case heard on the merits alone. Justice must not be denied due to procedural technicalities and legislative sunset provisions.

While we cannot reverse the horrors of the Holocaust, we can ensure that in an American courtroom, the truth of a family's legacy carries more weight than a legal loophole.

Some might have you believe, Mr. Speaker, that this bill addresses a problem mostly for Europe to resolve, but they would be wrong. In fact, the September 2025 report from the World Jewish Restitution Organization found that U.S. museums hold well over 100,000 objects that were in Europe during the Holocaust, yet only about 10 percent of those objects have been made publicly accessible online for provenance research. Additionally, among 160 major museums in the United States, only 21 percent provide easily accessible object-level Nazi-era provenance information.

If relevant pieces are not made available for research, how can we even know the true scope of this problem? What do the holders of these pieces have to hide?

This is not an issue that is relevant only to decades-old legal cases or an issue faced only by a few dying survivors and their families. Nazi-looted art is still being discovered regularly.

Just a few months ago, an online auction was intercepted in Ohio for two 17th century floral paintings by a famous Dutch still-life painter with original Nazi inventory numbers, S-16 and S-17, still on the back. The works had been sitting in an abandoned safe deposit box in Texas for decades before surfacing.

In 2023, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office seized seven works by a famous Austrian expressionist painter, valued at nearly $10 million, that had for decades been displayed in a variety of museums and collections in New York. The DA's office rightfully returned the pieces to the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum, a Jewish collector murdered at Dachau concentration camp in 1941.

That is why we must reauthorize and improve the HEAR Act of 2016 by passing the bill before us today, to ensure that the provenance of pieces that can be proven are able to be fully litigated on their merits alone, and to send a clear message from the Halls of Congress to those who knowingly hold Holocaust-looted art that the United States will no longer tolerate such barbaric behavior.

It is important for us to be abundantly clear about what this bill does and does not do.

Fundamentally, this bill seeks to ensure that claims regarding Nazi- looted art are decided on their merits alone, without hiding behind procedural technicalities.

The bill also eliminates the original HEAR Act sunset provision, which is scheduled to expire in December 2026. That deadline was intended to encourage museums and holders to complete provenance research on the relevant pieces and to resolve any applicable claims.

Unfortunately, this limited time frame has allowed some institutions to delay, withhold information, and run out the clock. I hope we can all agree, Mr. Speaker, that justice for victims of the Holocaust and their families should not come with an expiration date.

Here is what this bill does not do. It does not decide who wins and loses any case. It does not undermine, in letter or intent, any agreements made by any entity regarding any Holocaust-related or other matters. It does not impact or seek to influence any other categories of Holocaust claims outside of those that are art-related and specifically described in the legislation.

The issues this legislation seeks to address are not new. In fact, it even appeared in the early 2000s popular TV show ``The West Wing.'' In a second-

season episode, a Jewish woman on a White House tour begins screaming after recognizing a painting that had belonged to her father in France before it was seized by the Vichy regime during the Holocaust and later gifted to the White House. In the television show, the painting is swiftly and voluntarily returned to the woman and her family.

The show is obviously a work of fiction, but if all similar claims were resolved in such a way in reality, there would be much less need for this legislation. Unfortunately, like much of ``The West Wing,'' such a resolution is too good to be true.

Finally, there are many individuals and organizations that have worked hard to draft and promote this legislation. I thank all of them, and especially the Art Ashes organization. Without their tireless advocacy, this day would not be possible.

I also thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Lee) for her partnership in introducing this bill in the House.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation to ensure that victims of the Holocaust and their families are able to have their claims heard on their merits alone.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), the distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge my colleagues to support this measure. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1884) to clarify the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016, to appropriately limit the application of defenses based on the passage of time and other non-merits defenses to claims under that Act.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 1884.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to bring this legislation before the House today. I thank my bipartisan colleagues in both Chambers who have worked to advance this important effort.

In the House, I thank Ranking Member Jamie Raskin and Representatives Scott Fitzgerald, Jerry Nadler, and Maggie Goodlander.

In the Senate, I thank Senators John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Richard Blumenthal, and Chuck Schumer.

The Nazi regime committed unimaginable atrocities during the Holocaust, murdering millions of Jews and destroying families, communities, and livelihoods.

The regime also carried out a systematic campaign of cultural theft. Hundreds of thousands of works of art and cultural objects were confiscated or misappropriated from Jewish families and other persecuted groups across Europe. These were not simply possessions. They were pieces of family history, identity, and legacy.

After World War II, the United States and our Allies attempted to return stolen artwork to their rightful owners, yet many pieces were never reunited with the families from whom they were taken.

In the decades since, these works have surfaced in museums, galleries, and private collections around the world.

In 1998, the United States convened the Washington Conference on Nazi-Confiscated Art with more than 40 nations. The conference produced the

Washington Principles, which called on governments and institutions to take steps to achieve just and fair solutions for families seeking return of their stolen property. Congress took an important step toward that goal in 2016 when it enacted the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act.

That law was designed to ensure that Holocaust survivors and their heirs would have a fair opportunity to pursue claims in court and that those claims would be decided on their merits, not dismissed because too much time had passed.

Unfortunately, courts have sometimes applied technical defenses in ways that undermine Congress' intent. This means that families who lost everything during the Holocaust can still be denied their day in court because of procedural barriers. This bill fixes that problem.

This bill removes the upcoming expiration date in the original law and clarifies that these cases should be decided on the facts, not dismissed on technicalities.

As someone who previously served as a judge in Florida and now serves on the Judiciary Committee, I believe deeply that Congress must speak clearly and provide judges with standards and guidance to apply in their courtrooms.

Justice should not depend on procedural loopholes or arbitrary decisions when families are seeking the return of property that was stolen during one of history's greatest crimes. Behind every claim is a family story.

Even today, descendants of Holocaust victims are still searching for works of art that once hung in their grandparents' homes. In some cases, families spent a generation preserving photographs, letters, and fragments of evidence in hopes of one day recovering a painting or a sculpture that represents their family's past.

For many of these families, these cases are not about the monetary value of the artwork. They are about restoring a piece of history that was taken from them.

The Nazi regime stole not only lives but legacies. They stole hundreds of thousands of artwork pieces in what has been termed the greatest displacement of art in human history. The Nazis looted over 600,000 works of art and artifacts. To this day, more than 100,000 of these works are not yet recovered. More than 100,000 works of art and artifacts are still missing.

This legislation helps to ensure that survivors and their heirs have the opportunity to reclaim those legacies and that their claims are heard fairly in American courts.

I thank the many organizations that are supporting this effort, including Art Ashes, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Women International, the Florida Holocaust Museum, and many others who continue working to preserve memory and pursue justice. Despite the passage of time since the horrors of the Holocaust, it is never too late to do the right thing.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and ensure that families seeking the return of their stolen heritage are given the justice that they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick).

Mr. Speaker, it is just for Holocaust survivors and their heirs to continue to have their claims relating to art stolen from them

by the Nazis heard in court. These claims should be decided on the merits, not dismissed due to technical defenses. The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025 will ensure just that.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Nadler for his extraordinary leadership on this legislation and on this issue.

I rise in strong support of S. 1884, the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025. This bill, which has already passed the Senate by unanimous consent, amends the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 in a number of key ways to ensure that Holocaust survivors and their heirs have a fair opportunity in court to recover all of the artwork that was stolen by the Nazi regime or what is left of it. In doing so, this bill will provide these victims the chance to obtain some small measure of justice for the horrors and the injustices and indignities their families have endured.

During its reign of hatred and terror, the Nazis committed theft and murder on a mass industrial scale through the relentless killings of the Einsatzgruppen in the Bloodlands of Europe and through the death camps they established at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and many others.

For the victims' families, these pieces of art are both stolen objects and stolen connections to their own family members whose memories the Nazis have tried to permanently erase from history.

In many cases, the artwork serves as the final tangible connection of the victims' families to their lost family members, providing proof of their existence and a testament to their suffering and their loss.

Congress passed the 2016 HEAR Act, which established a 6-year Federal statute of limitations for claims arising from Nazi-stolen artwork out of concern that the State statutes of limitations would prevent most litigation. In its findings, Congress observed that the unique and horrific circumstances of World War II and the Holocaust make statutes of limitations especially burdensome to the victims and their heirs. It further noted the difficulty of piecing together their cases from a fragmentary historical record ravaged by persecution, war, and genocide. This costly process often cannot be done within the time constraints imposed by what was then the existing law.

Alas, several court decisions since the 2016 HEAR Act's passage have undermined the statute's purpose of trying to give victims a fair hearing on the merits of their cases regardless of the passage of time. These decisions have dismissed numerous cases precisely based on passage of time defenses like laches or adverse possession or other non-merits defenses like forum non conveniens, the act of state doctrine, or foreign sovereign immunity.

This bill addresses these court decisions and related concerns. It eliminates the HEAR Act's sunset provision so that defendants no longer have an incentive to simply run out the clock on victims' families. It also prohibits courts from dismissing lawsuits on grounds related to the passage of time or other non-merit defenses. Finally, it clarifies that claims for recovery of the artwork fall within an existing expropriation exception to foreign sovereign immunity regardless of the victim's citizenship or nationality.

This bill will help give victims and their heirs the chance to obtain a small measure of justice for the grave and dehumanizing wrongs they suffered as a result of the Holocaust. It will also give victims' families a chance to recover at least a partial connection to their loved ones, a connection that was stolen in every single way possible by the Nazis.

I applaud Representative Lee, and I applaud our Senate colleagues who have worked to advance this bill. I especially recognize my colleague Representative Nadler for his longtime aggressive and unswerving leadership on seeing justice done in this case and to see passage of both the 2016 Act and this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly advocate for this legislation, and I urge all of our colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Representatives Lee and Nadler, for bringing this very important piece of legislation to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support, as a cosponsor, of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, the HEAR Act.

Mr. Speaker, during the Holocaust, the Nazi regime and its collaborators systematically looted hundreds of thousands of works of art and cultural treasures from Jewish families across Europe. These were not simply valuable objects. They were pieces of family history, family identity, and family heritage.

For decades, many survivors and their heirs have fought simply for the chance to have their claims heard in court. The original HEAR Act, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in this Chamber in 2016, tried to ensure that these claims would be decided only on their merits, rather than being dismissed because of technical objections, such as the passage of time.

Mr. Speaker, however, the courts did not follow Congress' intent on many issues, and new legal barriers have emerged that threaten to close or have closed the courthouse doors once again.

This legislation expressly reverses the ability of defendants to use non-merit-based offenses, such as the Supreme Court's decision in Germany v. Phillipp, which held that Germany's expropriation of German Jews' property in the Holocaust was simply a ``domestic taking'' and not a violation of international law under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

If not corrected by Congress, that decision would prevent Holocaust survivors and their heirs from recovering most of the art held by foreign governments and their museums. It would excuse the historical and moral culpability of Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators for perpetrating the Holocaust. An affirmative vote today closes that huge loophole.

Mr. Speaker, time is not on our side. Roughly 30,000 Holocaust survivors remain alive today in the United States of America, many now in their nineties, some of whom live in my district. They deserve to see in their lifetimes--and the world needs to hear--that in these times of rising anti-Semitism, Congress wishes to right these historical wrongs.

Mr. Speaker, this bill does not guarantee outcomes. It simply ensures that claims are heard fairly and decided on their merits. Passing this legislation reaffirms our Nation's commitment to justice, historical truth, and the memory of those who suffered one of history's darkest crimes.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the HEAR Act.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 271, S. 1884.

I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendments be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.