In light of the religious fervor that has surrounded a piece of Danish newspaper comic art, it's good to know that something good is happening in the European art scene.

On Monday, it was announced that Dutch officials would be returning over 200 master paintings to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker. This undertaking will go down as one of the largest restitutions of art seized by the Nazi party during World War II. Goudstikker was a Jewish art collector who was forced to abandon his art and flee Amsterdam just before it was taken by Nazi troops in the spring of 1940.

Holland kept his paintings after the war, and has had them hanging in various museums and government buildings ever since. The works include paintings by Jan Steen, Filippo Lippi, Anthony Van Dyck, Salomon van Ruysdael, Jan Mostaert and Jan van Goyen.

Although the dollar value of the art collection has not yet been determined, the significance of the Dutch restitution is invaluable to Holocaust survivors and sympathizers because it signals a change in the way European nations such as Holland view the events that took place over a half century ago.

According to Marei von Saher, widow of Goudstikker's son, this restitution is a sign that "people are looking at Holocaust victims differently."