Representative Laurel Lee (R-FL) is celebrating the passage of her Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act into law, which allows Holocaust survivors and their descendants the opportunity to recover plundered cultural artifacts.
The HEAR Act modifies existing laws so that claims of stolen art are decided on their merits rather than dismissed on legal technical grounds.
Throughout the existence of Nazi Germany, especially when the Holocaust began in earnest, the regime extensively looted art, cultural artifacts, and other valuables throughout its occupied territories and their Jewish inhabitants.
While much was recovered by Allied forces, including the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFA&A) Section of the U.S. Army (dramatized in the 2014 film The Monuments Men), many pieces remain missing to this day.
As a result, Rep. Lee's HEAR Act aims to assist in the effort to recover these lost relics.
"I am grateful to President Trump for signing my legislation into law, reaffirming our nation's commitment to ensuring Holocaust survivors and their families have the opportunity to recover what is rightfully theirs," Rep. Lee said in a press release. "This law advances justice and affirms a simple principle: these cases should be decided based on truth, not technicalities, and we will continue to stand with those seeking to reclaim what was taken from them."
Last March, Florida became the second state in the union to open a Holocaust memorial in Tallahassee, presided over by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), where a Holocaust survivor was awarded the Governor's Medal of Freedom.
The memorial's opening coincided with the appropriation of $20 million for the security of Jewish facilities such as synagogues and schools, and sharp words from Gov. DeSantis about Holocaust education.
"You have a right to free speech, but a teacher that is in front of students trying to minimize the Holocaust, they get a pink slip and they are no longer going to be teaching," he said.
