NY, Bavarian authorities return Nazi-stolen art to German-Jewish woman's heirs

New York and Bavarian authorities have returned "Music (Arcadian Scene)," an 1892 painting by Albert Lang, to the heirs of Sofie Heilbronner, a German-Jewish woman from whom it was stolen by the Nazis. Heilbronner fled Germany in 1938, and her possessions, including the artwork, were seized and auctioned. The painting was held by the Bavarian State Painting Collections for decades and was identified after the Bavarian National Museum posted it on the Lost Art Database in 2015. Heilbronner's descendants contacted the New York State Holocaust Claims Processing Office in 2018, which facilitated the restitution. Paul Laporte, a great-grandson, stated, "The return of this painting corrects a longstanding historical wrong and restores to us an important piece of our heritage." The New York office, established in 1997, has helped recover over $184 million in assets and resolved claims for over 370 cultural objects.