Two oil paintings from the 16th century were returned to the heirs of a Jewish couple from Berlin who were forced to sell their art gallery in 1935 by the Nazis. The man died in exile while the woman died at Auschwitz. The paintings were bought by the Hearst Castle museum in 1935 from the I.S. Goldschmidt Gallery in Berlin. (It is the assumption of this writer that the Hearst Castle was owned by William Randolph Hearst of newspaper fame). The article says "Hearst was likely unaware of their origin" (like a person of Heast's connections and awareness of events in Germany would not think to ask of the origin?). The US has arranged 25 settlements of repatriated art from German Jews by the Nazis.
(Source: "Two Oil Paintings are returned to Holocaust heirs" by Smantha Young of the AP. The Virginian Pilot of 4/11/09)
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