Governor Schwarzenegger Restores unto Heirs 16th Century Venetian Pantings

Peter Bloch, of Boynton Beach, Fla., as well as family member Ingle Blackshear of Buenos Aires, received one 16th century oil painting each on behalf of their grandparents, Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer, Friday, who were compelled by the Nazi's to shut down their art gallery in 1935 Berlin.

"It is hard for me even to talk about it, but this would have meant a lot to my father," said Bloch. "He was very bitter about what happened."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman, handed the Venetian pictures to them on the second day of the Jewish holiday, respectively known as the Passover, according to the Associated Press.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Portrait of Alvise Vendramin, and the Portrait of a Bearded Gentleman, were returned to Bloch, 73, and Blackshear, from William Randolph Hearst's (deceased American journalist and San Francisco Examiner) California castle.

"I am humbled to play a role in undoing this terrible wrong for the heirs of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer," said Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger said the Holocaust was among the "darkest crimes against humanity in the modern era."

Jakob died poor on June 3, 1941 in Nice, France and his wife, Rosa, was taken from a French hospice by German occupiers and was to be moved to Auschwitz. She later died in the death camp there two years later in November. Fortunately, three of the Oppenheimers' four children escaped Nazi Germany with their families.