«Breaking News» Great grandson of Jewish woman who gave Camille Pissarro painting to Nazis begins bid to get it back

Seventy-nine years ago a Jewish woman named Lilly Cassirer surrendered her family's priceless Camille Pissarro painting to the Nazis in exchange for safe passage out of Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.

On Tuesday her great-grandson will walk into a U.S. courtroom for the latest round of what has been a nearly 20-year battle to get it back.

After years of appeals by both Lilly Cassirer's descendants and Spain's Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, where the painting has hung for 25 years, a trial to decide its rightful owner is scheduled before U.S. District Judge John F. Walter.

Priceless: Lilly Cassirer surrendered the Camille Pissarro called 'Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie' to the Nazis in 1939 in exchange for safe passage out of Germany, and 20 years ago her family found it at the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid

Neither side disputes that Cassirer handed the painting over to the Nazis in 1939 in exchange for safe passage out of the country for herself, her husband and her grandson.

But the Madrid museum has argued that she forfeited her ownership rights when she accepted $13,000 from Germany in 1958, after the German government concluded the painting was lost forever. 

The museum also has argued that it acquired the work in good faith and has never tried to hide it.

'There's no dispute about the painting's complete history. The court examined all the evidence and determined that the museum is the rightful owner,' Thyssen-Bornemisza's U.S. attorney, Thaddeus J. Stauber, told The Associated Press in 2016 after Walter initially dismissed the case.

The Cassirer family successfully appealed last year and their lawsuit was returned to Walter for trial.

The family's attorney, David Boies, says the matter now boils down to Spain doing what's right and surrendering the painting.

'It's unusual for a modern liberal democracy to be trying to hold onto Nazi-looted art,' he said Monday as he prepared for trial. 'Every other civilized country in the world is committed to returning Nazi-looted art to the rightful owners.'

The painting, 'Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie' has been valued at $30 million or more.

Pissarro created the stunning oil-on-canvas work of a rainy Paris street scene from what he saw out the window of a hotel room in 1897. Its title translates to English as 'Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain.'

Lilly Cassirer's father-in-law bought it directly from Pissarro's art dealer and left it to her and her husband when he died.

For more than 70 years her family believed it was lost. Then in 1999 a friend of Cassirer's grandson, Claude, who had fled Germany with her, saw a photo of it in a catalog and contacted him.

'And he was completely stunned because we thought the painting was gone,' Claude Cassirer's son, David Cassirer of San Diego, told The Associated Press in 2016.

It turned out the work had been sold and resold several times before Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, one of the 20th century's most prominent art collectors, bought it from New York gallery owner Stephen Hahn in 1976.

Thyssen-Bornemisza, who died in 2002, sold the painting and hundreds of other works to Spain in 1993 and they now form the core of the museum named for him.

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/12/04/great-grandson-of-jewish-woman-who-gave-camille-pissarro-painting-to-nazis-begins-bid-to-get-it-back/
Main photo article Seventy-nine years ago a Jewish woman named Lilly Cassirer surrendered her family’s priceless Camille Pissarro painting to the Nazis in exchange for safe passage out of Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.
On Tuesday her great-grandson will walk into a U.S. courtroom for the latest round of...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca





https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/04/06/wire-6978176-1543903765-774_634x456.jpg