Camille Pissarro
Back in 2015, a judge rules that the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation had good title to Pissarro’s “Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie” and the grandchildren of Lilly Cassirer had no claim. Cassirer, a German Jew, was forced to sell the work to a Nazi art appraiser at a price well below market value.
In the 1990s, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation purchased hundreds of works for $338 million from the Thyssen-Bornemisza family … which was well below the then current market value estimated to be between $1-2 billion. Do you think they knew that there might be issues with some of the works in this collection? Well, it appears the Ninth Circuit does and last week they reversed a ruling in favor of a Spanish art foundation claiming ownership of an impressionist painting, because the foundation had not convinced the court that it did not know the painting was stolen by Nazis when it acquired it.
We will keep you updated on this matter.
Source: Family’s Claim to Nazi-Looted Painting Revived by Ninth Circuit