BERLIN (AP) — A Houston museum says it "stands by its ownership" of a painting on loan to an exhibition in Germany which is being claimed as Nazi-looted art.

Henri Edmond Cross' "Regatta in Venice" was loaned by Houston's Museum of Fine Arts for a show at Potsdam's Barberini Museum. Heirs of Jewish French collector Gaston Levy say it was stolen from their family by the Nazis and filed a legal request for its return.

The Texas museum said Friday that "based on the facts of the provenance research, the museum stands by its ownership of 'Regatta in Venice.'"

It said no proof has been presented that the plaintiffs are Levy's rightful heirs, and Levy didn't claim compensation for the piece in 1956 when he filed claims for other pieces in his collection.