FRANCE

France is starting a search for the Jewish owners of about 2,000 pieces of Nazi-plundered art that hang in French museums such as the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay.  President Francois Hollande’s government is setting up a group of historians, regulators, archivists and curators to actively track down families starting in March, rather than waiting for claimants to come forward. The plan marks the first effort to reach out to Nazi victims since 1995. The new push follows a French Senate report last month that called on the government to be more proactive and transparent, in which Green Party senator Corinne Bouchoux called for the government to make looted art archives at the foreign ministry and the Louvre museum more accessible.