NEW YORK (JTA) — Two paintings from the estate of William Randolph Hearst are being returned to the heirs of the Holocaust victims who were forced to sell them.
A two-year investigation by the state of California has determined that three paintings that have hung in Hearst Castle for decades originally belonged to antique dealers Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer, The Associated Press reported.
The heirs of the Oppenheimers, who were forced to sell their property by the Nazis in the 1930s, allowed one of the three paintings to remain at the castle.
Hearst, the notorious publishing magnate, was unaware of the origins of the paintings when he acquired them in 1935, according to the California Department of Parks and Recreations, which administers the castle.
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