The family of Lilly Cassirer have renewed hopes of reclaiming the oil painting Camille Pissarro’s “Rue St. Honoré, dans l’après-midi. Effet de pluie” (St. Honoré Street in the afternoon. Effect of rain), which was looted in Germany by the Nazis, after a Supreme Court ruling, international media reported.
The impressionist painting, worth tens of millions of dollars, has been sitting in Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza art museum following a lower court ruling.
Cassirer’s descendants have spent decades in front of courts seeking the return of the artwork.
The Nazis forced Cassirer to sell the painting in 1939 in exchange for an exit visa to flee the Reich. The 900 Reichsmark made during the sale were put in an account that Cassirer could not access.
After the end of the Third Reich, Cassirer was compensated by the German government, who believed that the painting was missing or damaged.
Legal claims to the painting
Claude Cassirer, grandson of Lilly Cassirer, began efforts to reclaim the painting in 2000 after learning that the artwork was in the Thyssen-Bornemisza.
“We hope Spain and its museum will now do the right thing and return the Nazi-looted art they are holding without further delay,” David Boies, an attorney for the family, told The Washington Post.
Despite Boies’s hopes, Thaddeus J. Stauber, an attorney for the museum, said the institute would continue fighting for the artwork.
“The Foundation, as it has for the past 20 years, looks forward to working with all concerned to once again ensure that its ownership is confirmed with the painting remaining on public display in Madrid,” Stauber said.
A controversial Spanish law allows someone to claim ownership of an object in their possession for over six years.
David Cassirer, the great-grandson of Lilly Cassirer, told The Washington Post that his father “was very disappointed that Spain refused to honor its international obligations [but] would be very relieved that our democratic institutions are demanding that the history of the Holocaust not be forgotten.”