Spain museum confident it can keep painting stolen by Nazis

Apr 22, 2022, 9:23 AM | Updated: 9:45 am
FILE - This May 12, 2005 file photo shows an unidentified visitor viewing the Impressionist paintin...

FILE - This May 12, 2005 file photo shows an unidentified visitor viewing the Impressionist painting called "Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie" painted in 1897 by Camille Pissarro, on display in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. Lilly Cassirer surrendered her family's priceless Camille Pissarro painting to the Nazis in exchange for safe passage out of Germany during the Holocaust. The Supreme Court is hearing the case about the stolen artwork. (AP Photo/Mariana Eliano, File)

(AP Photo/Mariana Eliano, File)

MADRID (AP) — A leading Spanish museum said Friday it’s confident that U.S. courts will again rule that a valuable French impressionist painting once taken from a Jewish family by the Nazis belongs to the museum, and not to descendants of the family.

In a statement Friday, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum said that despite a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling that returned the case to lower courts, it was sure those courts would once again rule that Spanish law, rather than California law, should prevail.

That would mean the painting, Camille Pissaro’s “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain,” should remain in the hands of the Madrid museum where it now hangs. The painting has been estimated to be worth more than $30 million.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday to return the case to the Courts of Appeal kept alive San Diego resident David Cassirer’s hopes of getting back the streetscape that belonged to his great-grandmother.

U.S. lower courts have previously concluded that Spanish property law and not California law should ultimately govern the case and that under Spanish law, the museum was the rightful owner of the painting, which the family believed for over half a century had been lost or destroyed.

The Courts of Appeal will now decide whether California state law, rather than federal law, might hold precedence over Spanish law. This could overturn earlier rulings.

The Thyssen museum said that Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor had commented during the hearing that the next ruling would probably be again in the Spanish museum’s favor.

Cassirer’s great-grandmother, Lilly Cassirer, a German Jew, had owned the 1897 oil painting. After the Nazis came to power, Cassirer and her husband fled Germany. In 1939, in order to get visas to leave, she surrendered the Pissarro painting to the Nazis.

The painting changed hands a number of times after that.

In 1958, Lilly Cassirer reached a monetary settlement with the German government worth about 232,000 euros ($250,000) today, but she didn’t give up rights to try to pursue the painting if it turned up.

Rather than being lost or destroyed, the painting had traveled to the United States, where it spent 25 years in the hands of different collectors before being purchased in 1976 by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza of Lugano, Switzerland. He owned it until the 1990s, when he sold much of his art collection to Spain.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

(Facebook Photo/City of San Luis, Arizona)...
Associated Press

San Luis authorities receive complaints about 911 calls going across border

Authorities in San Luis say they are receiving more complaints about 911 calls mistakenly going across the border.
4 days ago
(Pexels Photo)...
Associated Press

Daylight saving time begins in most of US this weekend

No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
12 days ago
Mexican army soldiers prepare a search mission for four U.S. citizens kidnapped by gunmen in Matamo...
Associated Press

How the 4 abducted Americans in Mexico were located

The anonymous tip that led Mexican authorities to a remote shack where four abducted Americans were held described armed men and blindfolds.
12 days ago
Tom Brundy points to a newly built irrigation canal on one of the fields at his farm Tuesday, Feb. ...
Associated Press

Southwest farmers reluctant to idle farmland to save water

There is a growing sense that fallowing will have to be part of the solution to the increasingly desperate drought in the West.
19 days ago
A young bison calf stands in a pond with its herd at Bull Hollow, Okla., on Sept. 27, 2022. The cal...
Associated Press

US aims to restore bison herds to Native American lands after near extinction

U.S. officials will work to restore more large bison herds to Native American lands under a Friday order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
19 days ago
(Photo: OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center)...
Sponsored Content by OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

Here's what you need to know about OCD and where to find help

It's fair to say that most people know what obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders generally are, but there's a lot more information than meets the eye about a mental health diagnosis that affects about one in every 100 adults in the United States.

Sponsored Articles

(Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona Photo)...
Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona

5 common causes for chronic neck pain

Neck pain can debilitate one’s daily routine, yet 80% of people experience it in their lives and 20%-50% deal with it annually.
...
Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing

Prep the plumbing in your home just in time for the holidays

With the holidays approaching, it's important to know when your home is in need of heating and plumbing updates before more guests start to come around.
(Desert Institute for Spine Care photo)...
DESERT INSTITUTE FOR SPINE CARE

Why DISC is world renowned for back and neck pain treatments

Fifty percent of Americans and 90% of people at least 50 years old have some level of degenerative disc disease.
Spain museum confident it can keep painting stolen by Nazis