International headlines recently focused on Schoenberg’s fight to win the return of the $325 million Nazi looted Gustav Klimt portraits to the heirs of their original Jewish owners but there are still thousands of pieces of extremely valuable stolen art and collectibles which once belonged to the Jews of Europe that even now are hanging in major museums around the world, stored in international vaults, traded openly on the world wide art market or sitting in the homes of “average citizens.”

This is stolen art that Karen Franklin and her resolute international backers are determined to put back into the hands of their rightful owners. In her Los Angeles appearance, titled “State of the Art: Restitution and Resolutions “ which is co-sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles and the German American Cultural Society, Franklin will share some of the genealogical research she used to help solve prominent cases in the Netherlands, Germany and Ukraine. She will present examples of the artwork she has helped track and give highlights of her behind-the-scenes sleuthing techniques.

Franklin has been researching major cases for the Origins Unknown Agency and the Looted Art Commission. A co-author of the Resolution on Looted Art, which the Council of American Jewish Museums passed earlier this year, she will describe how this resolution affects claimants and the Jewish community. Recent lectures on this topic have resulted in several new cases coming to light and Franklin will give an update on these cases.

She will use clips from recently released films “The Rape of Europa” and “Stealing Klimt” to further illustrate examples of other recent cases and the worldwide attention this important work is now getting.

Guests are invited to bring examples, information, and/or photographs of Holocaust– looted art, collectibles or Judaica which they are interested in tracing. They will have a brief chance to present this information to the audience at the end of the lecture.

Guest admission to the program is $5.00 per person. Free to Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles and German American Culture Society members. Skirball address: 2701 North Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif., 90049. Parking is free.

More information and directions to the Skirball are at: www.jgsla.org