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Critics contend, however, that with a little basic research, buyers like Searle and his Art Institute advisers can readily ascertain a work of art's true origins. In many cases, dealers known to have bought or sold art for the Nazis turn up in a work's chain of custody, a red flag signaling a potentially looted object. In the case of Searle's Degas, German dealer Hans Wendland, who operated all but openly as a fence disposing of the Nazi trove, apparently transferred the painting during the war. "It's just obvious that people buying art need to do their homework, just as they would when they purchase real estate, used cars or even livestock," says Thomas Kline, who represents the Goodmans and has emerged as this country's most prominent lawyer in the field of art recovery.
The Goodmans tracked another painting, Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap, a canvas attributed to Botticelli, to New York, where it was sold by Sotheby's for $690,000 on Jan. 30, even though Kline says he had earlier informed Sotheby's, in writing, of the family's claim to the painting. Sotheby's later helped arrange a six-figure confidential settlement between the Italian seller of the work and the Goodmans, but got to keep its commission of more than $100,000 on the original sale. "We sell thousands of works of art every year and check every one of them with an electronic data bank," explains a spokesman for the auction house. "In this case, the disputed ownership did not turn up."
Efforts to improve the recovery of looted art are under way. G.O.P. House Banking Committee chairman James Leach and Democrats Charles Schumer and Nita Lowey of New York are considering legislation that would require more careful research into the provenance of a work at the time of its sale. In August the National Jewish Museum in Washington launched the Holocaust Art Restitution Project, or HARP, a database and research institute dedicated to cataloging lost collections both in Europe and the U.S. The World Jewish Congress has established a similar project, headed by Ronald Lauder, the chairman of the board for New York's Museum of Modern Art and chairman of the Estee Lauder cosmetics empire.
HARP has already received some two dozen inquiries from survivors or their heirs wanting to pursue claims. But most are not wealthy, and could have trouble bearing the cost of the protracted litigation that may be required to recover their property. As the Goodmans have discovered, locating lost art is one thing. Getting it back is another.