An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor from New York City has filed a lawsuit against German authorities over the return of a painting that he claims was stolen in the 1930s and is now part of the art hoard recently discovered in Munich.

Hi suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the Federal Republic of Germany and the Free State of Bavaria have "perpetuate[d] the persecution of Nazi victims" by not returning the seized artworks to their rightful owners in a timely manner. The trove of 1,300 artworks was confiscated in 2012 from the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt whose father had worked for the Nazis.

Hildebrand Gurlitt, the father, gathered looted art for the Nazis, keeping the "degenerate art" that Hitler hated for himself. Many artworks handled by Gurlitt were outright stolen or bought at low prices from forced sales of artworks owned by Jews and others.

The Holocaust survivor who filed suit is David Toren, an intellectual property attorney who espcaed Germany at age 14 in 1939. His family was killed, including a great uncle who owned "Two Riders on the Beach" by Max Liebermann, the work that Toren is suing for its return.

Germany appointed a task force to figure out the provenance of the seized cache, but Toren contends that his rightful ownership of the painting demands its immediate return to him.