California Returns Paintings Stolen by Nazis to Oppenheimer Family

Yesterday in Sacramento, the State of California returned three paintings to the heirs of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer, which were recently discovered to have been the subject of a “judenauktionen,” a coerced sale of Jewish assets by the Nazis, in 1935.

The paintings were part of the Hearst Castle collection for decades, and their history was never known. The paintings were then deeded to the State in 1972 with the transfer of Hearst Castle to California State Parks and were included in the Handbook of the Paintings in Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument.

A claim by the attorney for the Oppenheimer estate prompted an investigation by the State and was found to be valid. The paintings were returned to two of the Oppenheimers' grandchildren, who agreed to allow the State to keep one of the paintings, Venus and Cupid, and to create replicas of the other two, "Portrait of Alvise Vendramin" and "Portrait of a Bearded Gentleman," pictured above, in order to educate the public on their history.