Jacques Goudstikker died fleeing the Nazis, Göring took his paintings, and the Netherlands returned 202 of them in 2006

Jacques Goudstikker was a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam whose firm held more than 1,200 works. On 14 May 1940, as Germany invaded, he fled with his wife Dési and their son on the SS Bodegraven. He died on board two days later after falling into an open hold^†. Dési kept his black notebook listing the stock. On 13 July 1940 the firm's paintings were sold to Hermann Göring for 2 million guilders, and the gallery and other assets went to Alois Miedl. After the war the Allies returned the art to the Netherlands. The firm sought restitution only for the Miedl sale and settled with the state in 1952, keeping the sale price. The Göring works stayed with the state. In 1966 the state sold Lucas Cranach the Elder's Adam and Eve to George Stroganoff-Sherbatoff, who said the Soviets had taken them from his family. He sold them in 1971 to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena for $800,000. Dési and her son died in 1996. Her daughter-in-law, Marei von Saher, claimed 267 works. On 19 December 2005 the Dutch Restitutions Committee recommended returning 202, and on 6 February 2006 the state secretary agreed. Von Saher sued the Norton Simon in 2007. On 30 July 2018 the Ninth Circuit ruled that the museum holds good title because the Dutch sale was an act of state. In 2026 Adam and Eve hang in Pasadena, and other works from the collection are still being traced.