On January 9, a US appeals court ruled that Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza museum can keep a painting by French impressionist Camille Pissarro that the Nazis seized from a Jewish woman, rejecting an ownership claim that her heirs have made for more than two decades, Xi reported. Ann Ann.
The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, was made in one of the oldest Nazi art theft cases, which began in 2005 and reached the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago.
Pissarro's painting "Rue Saint Honore, apres midi, effet de pluie" ("Street Saint Honore, afternoon, rain effect"), depicting a Parisian street scene, was stolen in 1939 by Lili Neubauer, who was forced to sell it for 900 Reichsmarks ($360 today) to get a visa and escape Nazi Germany. She was never paid.
Ownership passed through several hands until 1993, when the museum bought the 1897 painting from Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and put it on display, where it has remained ever since.
After learning of the painting's whereabouts, Neubauer's grandson, Claude Cassirer, petitioned for its return in 2001, and 4 years later filed a lawsuit.
He died in 2010, and the case is now handled by his son David, his daughter Ava's estate and the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County.
In his Jan. 9 ruling, District Judge Carlos Bea said Spain's interest in providing "security of ownership" to its museums outweighed California's interest in preventing theft and reimbursing victims of stolen art who live there.
Bea said this justified the application of Spanish rather than California law, which entitled Thyssen to the painting, as it had owned and exhibited it in good faith for 8 years before its ownership was questioned .
In his opinion, District Judge Consuelo Callahan said Spain should have voluntarily relinquished the painting, reflecting its commitment to return stolen artworks to victims of Nazism, but the law dictated a different result.
"I wish it were otherwise," she wrote.
The decision comes two years after the Supreme Court overturned an earlier 9th Judicial Circuit decision because it misapplied choice-of-law rules.
Claude Cassirer's lawyers said in a joint statement that the ruling "fails to explain how Spain has an interest in enforcing its laws on money laundering." They plan to seek review by an 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit.
Tadeusz Stoiber, a lawyer for the Thyssen Museum, called the decision "a welcome end to this case"./BGNES
