Adam and Eve are in the news again - or, at least, two medieval paintings of the biblical progenitors of the human race are, whose ownership has been contested for a century by noble families, governments, museums and batteries of lawyers.
The tall, seductive paintings of Adam and Eve on two separate, 6ft-tall panels, are the work of the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Another chapter in the painting's stormy history was added last month in Los Angeles, when US District Court Judge John F Walter ruled that the two paintings, now valued at about $24 million, rightfully belonged to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, where they have been on display since 1971.
In the early 1900s, Adam and Eve were owned by an aristocratic Russian family, but were seized after the 1917 Russian revolution by the Soviet regime. In 1931, the Soviets sold the Cranach at a Berlin auction to Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. When Germany invaded Holland, Mr Goudstikker fled, leaving behind more than 1,000 artworks.
