US Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over Painting Stolen From Jewish Family by Nazis
Detail of the painting “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain” by Camille Pissarro. Photo: public domain
The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday on a case involving a family’s generations-long attempt to retrieve artwork stolen by the Nazis in 1939.
The painting, “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain” by Camille Pissarro, was originally owned by Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, a Jewish woman living in Berlin who was forced to sell it for a nominal price to Nazi agents in return for permission to flee Germany.
Neubauer was later given a small sum in reparations by the post-war German government in 1958 for the painting, which was believed to have been lost or destroyed. Decades later, it was discovered on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid by her grandson, Claude Cassirer.
Cassirer sought to claim ownership over the painting for a decade through court cases in Spain and California, where he resided, without success. After his death in 2010, his children carried on these efforts, with a defeat in the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 leading to the Supreme Court case.
The issue before the court concentrates on whether Spanish or California law applies to the case. If the jurisdiction is Spanish, it is unlikely the painting will be returned, as Spanish law does not require restitution if the work was acquired by the current owners in good faith. That is not the case in California.
The Cassirers’ petition before the court asserted that California law applies, as the painting was smuggled out of Germany after World War II through California and had been “traded privately in the United States” before acquisition by the Spanish museum.
The petition described Spain’s refusal to return the painting as “flouting its professed adherence to international commitments to resolve claims to Nazi-stolen art.”
The Los Angeles Times reported that certain court justices appeared in sympathy with the plaintiffs, with Chief Justice John Roberts saying, “Welcome to the United States. That’s how our courts work.”