Stolen Goods? Maybe. But You’re Not Allowed To Ask

“An El Greco painting displayed recently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was returned Thursday to the Greek museum that owns it after a state judge dismissed a lawsuit claiming it had been stolen by Nazis at the end of World War II… The suit sought to keep the painting in the United States pending further investigation of its provenance. It was rejected under a federal statute that says a lawsuit cannot be used to seize or control a cultural object brought into this country by a nonprofit institution like a museum for temporary exhibition.”