One of the longest-running Nazi restitution cases, fiercely debated within the courts for two decades, seemed to have met its end last year when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California ruled against the plaintiffs.
But on Monday, the Supreme Court revived it, vacating the 2024 ruling and remanding the case to the appeals court for further consideration after a California law was passed in September.
At issue is the rightful ownership of a French impressionist painting that originally belonged to a German Jew and was seized by the Nazis. The painting by Camille Pissarro, titled “Rue Saint-Honoré Après-midi, Effet de Pluie” (“Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain”), is estimated to be worth millions of dollars and hangs in a museum in Madrid. The descendants of the painting’s original owner have sued the museum, claiming that the painting should return to their family.
One of the key points before the courts has been the question of whether U.S. or Spanish law applies. Last year, the federal court ruled that Spanish law, not California law, applied to the case and that the museum should retain ownership since it had lawfully acquired the painting.
That decision seemed to doom the suit, until California lawmakers enacted legislation specific to Nazi art restitution cases in response to the court’s ruling. The new law, which was passed in September, says that artworks stolen by the Nazis should be returned to their original owners.
The painting at stake was originally owned by a Jewish woman, Lilly Cassirer, who had to surrender the painting to the Nazis in exchange for an exit visa from Germany in 1939.
The painting was later sold at a Nazi government auction and passed through the hands of a variety of collectors, including ones in the United States, before being purchased by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1976. The Spanish government bought the baron’s art collection, including the painting, in 1993 and it has been on display at the museum ever since. In 1958, Germany paid Cassirer compensation of about $265,000 in today’s dollars.
In 2000, Lilly’s grandson, Claude Cassirer, discovered that the painting was held in the museum in Madrid, and he later filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles to try to recover ownership. After Claude and his wife both died, their son, David Cassirer, became the plaintiff.
“As a Holocaust survivor, my late father, Claude Cassirer, was very proud to become an American citizen in 1947, and he cherished the values of this country,” David Cassirer said in an email. “He was very disappointed that Spain refused to honor its international obligations to return the Pissarro masterpiece that the Nazis looted from his grandmother. Although he passed away during this long battle, he would be very relieved that our democratic institutions are demanding that the history of the Holocaust not be forgotten.”
Thaddeus J. Stauber, a lawyer for the Spanish museum, said that the new California legislation should not change the lower courts’ decisions regarding the painting.
“Our position remains and always will be that a United States court sitting in California does not have jurisdiction to hear and resolve disputes over property that is in Spain,” Stauber said. “I don’t think the people of New York would like to have, let’s say, Russia or the U.K. or another country telling the citizens of New York, here’s how you have to deal with property issues in your state.”