USA – CALIFORNIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Steve Coopersmith, Ashley Rastegarpour and Philippa Grumbley, The Coopersmith Law Firm, LLP
The Coopersmith Law Firm, LLP 2 Columbia Place 1230 Columbia Street, Suite 680 San Diego, CA 92101 USA
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When Choice of Law Decides Justice: California’s AB 2867 and Nazi-Looted Art California Assembly Bill 2867 represents a decisive break from the legal status quo governing Holocaust restitution claims. Its enactment signals escalating frustration with federal and foreign frameworks that have proven ill-suited to deliver just and fair outcomes for claims rooted in Nazi-era dispossession. Historical context leading up to AB2867 The Holocaust was not only a campaign of physical extermination. It also involved the systematic dis - mantling of Jewish economic, cultural, and commu - nal life. The Nazi campaign extended beyond indi - viduals to encompass property, businesses, religious institutions, and works of art. This process unfolded gradually. One early example was the Reich Flight Tax imposed on Jews seeking to immigrate from Germa - ny. These financial restrictions operated as pressure mechanisms, stripping families of assets before they could escape. As the regime intensified, economic pressure contin - ued. Following Kristallnacht, heavy fines were imposed on Jewish communities, coerced sales of homes and businesses became widespread, and bank accounts were seized. Nazi seizures did not end at financial and personal assets. They continued to the very end, including in extermination camps, where the victims were stripped of their humanity and ultimately their lives. (Elazar Barkan, The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating His - torical Injustices)
The scope of Nazi confiscations surpassed tangible property and extended into intellectual property. This process of dispossession was formalised through the policy known as “Aryanization,” under which Jewish- owned businesses, assets, and cultural property were systematically transferred to non-Jewish control. Although often presented as voluntary transactions, Aryanization functioned through legal and econom - ic coercion, forcing Jewish owners to sell assets – including art collections – at a fraction of their value or to surrender them outright. Aryanization stripped Jewish collectors and dealers of both physical pos - session and legal title, embedding coerced transfers within ostensibly lawful commercial frameworks. These pressures were compounded by exit taxes, most notably the Reich Flight Tax mentioned above, which the Nazi regime repurposed into a mechanism of partial expropriation aimed at Jewish emigrants. Jews seeking to flee Germany were required to liq - uidate assets to satisfy punitive tax assessments, frequently leaving art collections among the few port - able stores of value available. As a result, artworks were often sold under extreme time pressure and at distressed prices, not as market transactions but as a prerequisite for escape. Taken together, Aryanization and exit taxation trans - formed art into a tool of survival for persecuted fami - lies while simultaneously providing the regime with a means to launder coerced transfers through the appearance of legality – an ambiguity that continues to complicate restitution claims today. By the late 1930s, these policies had become systematic, and Jewish authors and business owners were compelled
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