Our Mission

The Holocaust Art Recovery Initiative was founded to shine light on one of the last unresolved dimensions of the Holocaust: the looting of Jewish art and cultural property.


This work began after Clara Garbon-Radnoti, a Holocaust survivor and longtime researcher at the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Michigan, rediscovered a cache of more than 180 Holocaust-era Hungarian microfilm reels. These reels contained 1944–45 documentation showing systematic art seizures by Hungarian authorities, many on official museum letterhead.


With help from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Claims Conference, the reels were digitized and made public. Working with Clara, attorney Jonathan H. Schwartz led a review and translation of hundreds of the most important documents. The results were shocking and undeniable.