Senators defend HEAR Act in Nazi-looted art lawsuit

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and John Cornyn have filed an amicus brief in the Southern District of New York to defend the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act. The brief responds to unconstitutionality claims raised by Austrian defendants in the case of Reif v. Republic of Austria.

The lawsuit, filed in December 2022 by Timothy Reif and descendants David Fraenkel and Milos Vavra, seeks the return of twelve Egon Schiele artworks currently held by the Albertina Museum and the Leopold Museum in Vienna. The plaintiffs allege that Austria has become a “haven for traffickers in Nazi looted art” by maintaining financial and procedural barriers that prevent heirs from reclaiming stolen property.

The collection in question belonged to Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish performer whose more than 440 works were seized following the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938. Grünbaum was later killed at the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.

The HEAR Act was originally enacted in 2016 and amended in 2025 to prevent courts from dismissing claims on technical or procedural grounds. The updates removed a 2026 expiration date for claims and expanded the law's ability to reach foreign states, establishing a six-year statute of limitations from the moment a plaintiff discovers the identity and location of the artwork.