Law helps Holocaust victims recover stolen art from Nazi theft
S. 1884 — Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025 · Filed by John Cornyn (R-TX) · 21 cosponsors · Introduced May 22, 2025 · Signed
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What it does
The bill removes legal rules that courts used to dismiss art recovery lawsuits. It stops courts from throwing out claims on technical grounds. Cases already in court can move forward. Holocaust victims and their heirs can now sue to get back stolen artwork.
Who it affects
Holocaust victims and their heirs gain the right to sue for stolen art. Museums and institutions may face lawsuits about where pieces came from.
One thing to notice
The law applies to cases already filed in court, so old lawsuits can move forward again.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
21 cosponsors: 11 Democrats, 10 Republicans.
- May 22, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 22, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
- Nov 6, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported with amendments favorably”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with amendments by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8628-8629; text: CR S8629)”
- Mar 16, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H2497)”
- Mar 16, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Ms. Lee (FL) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Apr 2, 2026 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Apr 13, 2026 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-82”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 4 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $110,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 2 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 72% of bills with any report.
John Cornyn, who sponsored the bill, received $2,074,650 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Federal Bar Association — $60,000 in 1 report
- Art Ashes — $30,000 in 1 report
- Art Restitution to Assist Survivors of the Holocaust Emergency Services Fdn. — $20,000 in 1 report
- World Jewish Restitution Organization — $0 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Holocaust — The systematic killing of six million Jewish people by Nazi Germany during World War Two.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,019 characters) on May 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
- S. 1884 on Congress.gov
- Actions and status history
- Cosponsors (21)
- Bill text the analysis read
- Federal Bar Association — LDA filing, 2025 Q4
- Art Ashes — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- Art Restitution to Assist Survivors of the Holocaust Emergency Services Fdn. — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- John Cornyn — FEC candidate receipts, 2026 cycle
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