A North American court ruled, this Wednesday, in favor of the Thyssen Museum, confirming that a painting by Camille Pissarro in its collection belongs to the institution, despite having been stolen by the Nazis in Germany, in 1939, from its original owners. This ends a legal dispute that began in 2005. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal justified the decision by considering it preferable to apply Spanish laws to those of California to determine the ownership of the work 'Rue Saint-Honoré, après midi, effet de pluie', in a which remains in the possession of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.
Sources at Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid, told the Spanish agency EFE that the decision is positive, as “it gives the museum reason in the arguments it has supported since the beginning of this entire process”.
The decision is justified by the fact that “the application of California laws would significantly harm the interests of the Spanish government, while the application of Spanish laws would only harm, in a relatively minimal way, the interests of the California government”. “Considering the option test under California law, we therefore decided that Spanish law would be applied to determine ownership of the painting. And under the terms of article 1955 of the Spanish Civil Code, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection acquired ownership of the painting,” the court concluded.
This brings to an end a legal dispute that began in 2005, when Claude Cassirer, a North American citizen, filed a lawsuit against the Spanish state to demand the return of Pissarro's work, which had belonged to his family. According to the lawsuit, filed by Cassirer in California, his grandmother, Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, “was forced to hand over (the painting) to an official expert appointed by the Nazis” and received a symbolic sum for the work of art painted by Pissarro in 1897.
After the war, she took legal action against the painting and, in 1958, the then German federal government recognized her as the legal owner, compensating her with 120,000 marks.
The work passed through several hands until 1976, when Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza acquired it in New York. Later, in 1993, the Spanish state purchased the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, which included 775 works, including that of Pissarro, for 263 million euros.