Thanks nickcarraway.
Posted on 09/18/2024 3:10:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A bill signed into law this week by California Governor Gavin Newsom may signal the beginning of the end of a decades-long dispute between the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and the heirs of a Jewish collector over the rightful ownership of a work sold under duress during the Nazi regime.
In 1939, Lilly Cassirer Neubauer was forced to sell an 1897 oil by Camille Pissarro to a Nazi art appraiser in order to flee Germany before the impending war.
According to court documents, the Pissarro, titled Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain, fetched only $360 (modern USD). The work has been estimated to be valued in the “tens of millions” today.
The bill would clarify a murky point in the legal battle between Neubauer’s heir, David Cassirer, and the museum that stems from a provision in California law that can allow the laws of foreign governments to supersede state law. That provision has allowed the museum to keep the painting despite a prior Supreme Court ruling that the California law should apply to the case; that ruling was overturned earlier this year by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit.
The new law, which was jointly written by the Los Angeles-area Democrat and the co-chairs the California Legislative Jewish Caucus Assembly member Jesse Gabriel, proposes exceptions when the personal property in question was taken “as a result of political persecution”. In a statement, Newsom said that the state has a “moral and legal imperative” to return work stolen by Nazis to Holocaust survivors and their families.
The legal struggle over the Pissarro began in 2000, when Claude Cassirer, Lilly Cassirer Neubauer’s grandson and the father of David Cassirer, learned the painting existed. In 2005, after the museum refused to return the work – they claim the work was legitimately purchased and had no knowledge of its provenance – Cassirer filed a lawsuit.
After Claude Cassirer passed away in 2010, his legal claim was picked up by David Cassirer, his daughter Ava’s estate, and the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County.
Moving forward, the Cassirer has requested their claim to the Pissarro be kicked back to an 11-member panel of Ninth Circuit judges, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gabriel told POLITICO that the Spanish government’s insistence that they retain the painting was “incredibly shameful…They know and have conceded that it was stolen from this family. It’s time for that wrong to be righted.”
No question, the family should get it. The people had to sell it at gunpoint. Being under that kind of duress makes the title fraudulent.
A lot of Europe’s elites grew wealthy on stolen Jewish money and property.
LOL Most of Europe's elite families got there by stealing somebody's money: even in Britain today, there's a gross discrepancy in the incomes of descendants of the Anglo-Norman nobility and everyone else.
the painting...
As I understand it, the Nazis were meticulous in doing everything legally according to their laws. Jews were not allowed to own fine art and were required by law to sell the art for Nazi state bonds that they were allowed to get the interest from—assuming they were still alive. When they disappeared into the camps, the bonds reverted to the Nazi state.
The Nazis were all about making money from their victims, from their art, furniture, kitchen utensils down to the rags they wore before murdered.
Of course the family should get the art back.
If you have to pass a law in 2024 to settle the question, then no it is not a clear cut case.
I am puzzled about how California obtained jurisdiction over a painting sold in Germany and now held in a Spanish museum. It’s possible the seller’s heirs who brought suit live in California, but I would not expect a Spanish court to enforce a judgement based solely on that.
California has a Bill for everything
The heirs should get it, but the California law is dubious.
Yeah a lot of people got their wealth started that way too, people like Soros who sold out fellow Jews to the Nazis for money and then robbed their homes afterwards, filthy POS!
Isn’t this similar to an exit tax to leave a country? The guy received money, he got to leave, and likely saved his life.
How much did the Germans pay versus the actual value in 1939? I wonder how many transactions occurred between 1945 and 2024. Do all of them get unrolled? Seems unfair if it is not the case. Seems like the lawyers are the ones making the money.
Not sure how a recent law applies to all transactions that occurred decades ago.
Thanks nickcarraway.
The painting is in California, it’s stolen property. They are trying to recover it.
Isn’t this similar to an exit tax to leave a country? The guy received money, he got to leave, and likely saved his life.
No, it’s nazi extortion. “Sell” it to us, and flee. Because of course, if you remain here, we will kill you.
That is NOT a mere exit tax.
I did say similar. I am not a fan of the exit tax nor what the Nazi’s did. I don’t know if they paid 50 cents on the dollar, 25 cents or what. I have heard some Democrats proposing some relatively high exit taxes. They may not be proposing to kill people to leave but the latest poll had a fairly high percentage that thought it would be good if Trump were killed or were unsure. It is likely a matter of time.
I think people are already getting hit with exit taxes from California. And California even claims a right to to tax people for several years AFTER they leave.
Camille Pissaro was one of the “Gang of Four” who founded the Impressionist movement, the most notable art movement since the Renaissance. It beggars belief that any art museum could have bought a Pissaro without first executing their due diligence and confirming its authenticity, which would necessarily include fully documenting the painting’s provenance.
They should start with charging whoever negotiated the purchase of the painting on the museum’s behalf with trafficking in stolen art, and see if that changes their attitude as to its rightful ownership.
The Simpsons, grandpa Simpsons war artwork
the flying hellfish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDAJ67F2L4E
The article states that the painting is in Madrid, Spain. How do you deduce it is in California? If in Madrid, take it to a Spanish court. Is it stolen? Extorted more like, but illegally gained by any moral standard.
I don't like US courts thinking they can rule about things all over the globe.
They they should get a California judgement, and seize 9 million worth of Spanish property in America.
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