Hungary seized Baron Herzog's collection of 2,000 artworks in 1944, and US courts ended his heirs' 15-year lawsuit in 2026

Baron Mór Lipót Herzog assembled more than 2,000 paintings, sculptures and objects, the largest private collection in Hungary, with works by El Greco, Velázquez, Renoir and Monet. He died in 1934 and his children Erzsébet, István and András inherited it. After Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, the family hid the art in the cellar of one of its factories at Budafok. Hungarian authorities and their Nazi collaborators found it. It went to Adolf Eichmann's headquarters at the Majestic Hotel in Budapest, where he picked the best pieces for Germany. The rest went to the Museum of Fine Arts, whose director said the museum would now rank "just behind Madrid". Erzsébet fled through Portugal to the United States. István was nearly deported to Auschwitz and hid in a safe house under Spanish Embassy protection. András died in forced labour on the Eastern Front in 1943. Works returned after the war were retaken by the Communist state. In 2010 Erzsébet's grandson David de Csepel and András's daughters sued Hungary and its museums in Washington for 44 works or $100 million. The case reached the D.C. Circuit four times. In 2021 the Supreme Court held in Germany v. Philipp that a state's taking from its own nationals falls outside US jurisdiction. On 23 January 2026 the D.C. Circuit affirmed dismissal of every claim. In October 2026 the Supreme Court's docket search shows no petition from that ruling, and the works remain in Budapest's state museums.