Cases Pending

Each object tells a story. Some are still missing, some are restituted or resolved, and some have cases still pending. The circumstances of looting and the efforts for recovery are just as fascinating as the famous works of art themselves.

Camille Pissarro, Rue St. Honore: Afternoon, Rain Effects, 1897

Claude Cassirer filed suit against the Spanish government and the foundation that runs Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in 2005 to get back the painting Rue St. Honore: Afternoon, Rain Effects by Camille Pissarro. The painting depicts a 19th century street scene and was bought from the artist by Claude’s great-grandfather Julius in 1898. The Impressionist work was eventually handed down to Claude’s grandmother, Lilly Cassirer Neubauer. Lilly kept the painting in her house in Berlin and later at her house in Munich until she was forced to sell it to the Nazis in 1939 in order to obtain an exit visa.

Claude, who was raised by Lilly after his mother died, was imprisoned in concentration camps in France and Morocco before escaping to the United States where he settled in Ohio and eventually California. After the war, Lilly searched for the missing painting and filed a claim against it, but was unable to recover it. The German government gave her a settlement payment of approximately $13,000, but the payment did not alter the family’s claim. Lilly eventually joined Claude in America, and made Claude her sole heir before she died in 1962.

Claude did not know that the Pissarro painting still existed until a friend saw it in a Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum catalogue in 2000. It transpired that the painting was auctioned by the Nazis in 1943, resurfaced at a New York gallery in 1952 and was sold to a collector in St Louis. In 1976, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza purchased the painting from art dealer Stephan Hahn. The painting has been on display since 1993, when the Spanish government paid $327 million to buy the Baron’s collection.

After several unsuccessful attempts at negotiation with the museum, including those by restitution organisations and former government officials, Claude decided to sue the museum. This was possible after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that U.S. citizens were able to sue foreign governments in federal court over art looted during the Nazi regime. There is also the question as to whether the Spanish government owns the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation’s paintings. The Thyssen-Bornemisza is an independent body, but the foundation gave the government the money to buy the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.

In 2006, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation asked the U.S. to dismiss the lawsuit stating that Spain is a sovereign nation and immune from a lawsuit in America. When the U.S. courts rejected their motion to dismiss the case, the Foundation said that it would appeal the ruling. The case continues.