The Supreme Court will allow the ownership case of two Nazi-looted Renaissance masterpieces to go to trial in a longstanding battle between the heir of a noted Jewish art dealer and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif.

"Adam and Eve," a pair of 16th c. oil paintings by German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, belonged to the Jewish relatives of Marei Von Saher, who claims they left the works behind when fleeing the Nazis in Holland.

The museum says it acquired the works legally from the relative of Russians who lost the paintings in the 1920s during the upheaval of the Soviet Union. 'Adam and Eve' have hung in the Norton Simon for 30 years, and were appraised at $24 million in 2006.

"The Norton Simon Art Foundation remains confident that it holds complete and proper title to 'Adam and Eve,' and will continue to pursue, consistent with its fiduciary duties, all appropriate legal options," the museum said in a statement Wednesday.

Von Saher is the daughter-in-law of Jacques Goudstikker, a Dutch-Jewish art dealer who fled the Holocaust. She has successfully repatriated some 200 looted artworks from Goudstikker's collections.

The case, which began in 2007, will resume with additional preliminary proceedings before a federal judge in Los Angeles.