Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025

What does the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025 do?

S 1884 is a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). For decades, families of Holocaust victims have tried to recover artwork stolen by Nazi Germany, only to have American courts dismiss their cases on procedural grounds — time delays, deference to foreign governments, or doctrines unrelated to who actually owned the art. This law permanently removes those barriers. It prohibits courts from dismissing Holocaust art claims based on the passage of time or other procedural defenses, strips foreign governments of a key immunity argument regardless of the victim's nationality, removes the December 31, 2026 filing deadline entirely, and applies all of those changes retroactively to cases currently in court. Permanently bars courts from dismissing Nazi-looted art claims on procedural grounds, overriding multiple appellate and Supreme Court rulings that had blocked recovery.