Judge Urges Spain Museum To Do ‘Right Thing’ With Nazi-Looted Pisarro
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A U.S. federal judge declined to order the return from Spain of a painting that was sold under duress by a Jewish owner to a Nazi art appraiser.
The June 4 ruling by Judge John F. Walter of Los Angeles’ Central District Court of California stated that Spanish law applied in the case, and that the law did not require the painting’s return, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
However, at the end of his opinion, he issued an appeal to the museum to effectively do the right thing before resorting to any more court action. Walter called on it to “pause, reflect and consider” working out a resolution in light of Spain’s acceptance of international agreements regarding returning Nazi-looted art and its “commitment to achieve ‘just and fair solutions’ for victims of Nazi persecution.”
The ruling came after a decade-long dispute over ownership of the 1897 canvas, “Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie,” a Paris street scene by Pissarro, which is in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
In 2005, Claude Cassirer sued for restitution of the painting, which his German-born grandmother, Lilly Cassirer, in 1939 sold to an art dealer for the equivalent of $360 as she was fleeing her homeland from the Nazis. Cassirer’s father-in-law, Julius, purchased the painting from the painter Camille Pissarro.
The museum does not dispute that the painting was stolen, but is fighting the lawsuit on technicalities, including international jurisdiction issues and time limitation on restitution claims.
The painting was eventually acquired by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1976 and has been displayed in Madrid since the museum opened in late 1992. It was insured for over $10 million.
The museum has resisted calls by resitution bodies and Jewish groups to part with the painting.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
