(Jewish Group) New York museums required to acknowledge art stolen under Nazis

New York museums are now required to disclose the history of artworks that were stolen from Europeans, and primarily Jewish people, during the Nazi era, according to a new state law passed this month.

The law requires New York museums to display signage alongside works of art from before 1945 that are known to have been stolen or forcibly sold under Nazi rule.

The Germans looted 600,000 works of art during World War II, according to the text of the legislation and expert testimony.

New York state law currently requires works that were created before 1945 and changed ownership in Nazi Europe to be registered in the Art Loss Register, a private database of more than 700,000 works of lost, stolen and looted art, according to ARTnews.

Over the past few decades, New York museums have been at the center of debates about who has rightful ownership to artworks that changed hands during the Nazi era.

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