Supreme Court revives family’s claim to recover stolen Pissarro

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court on Monday revived a family’s claim to recover a painting that had been hung in a Berlin apartment in 1939 and was stolen by the Nazis.

In a brief order, the justices overturned the 9th Circuit Court for the second time and said the fate of the Claude Pissarro painting should be decided under the terms of a new California law that protects the rightful heirs of art that was lost during the Holocaust.

Repeatedly, a federal judge in Los Angeles and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had ruled the Spanish museum that had lawfully obtained the painting, called “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain,” more than 30 years ago had a rightful claim to own it.

But this legal conclusion over property transfers ran into the moral claim that stolen art work from the Holocaust era must be returned.

In 2000, Claude Cassirer, a San Diego resident, was astonished to learn that the painting that he remembered from his grandmother’s apartment in Berlin was hanging in a museum in Madrid.

After trying unsuccessfully to have it returned by the museum, he filed a lawsuit in 2005 in federal court in Los Angeles that has been carried on by his family. Claude Cassirer died in 2010; his wife, Beverly, in 2020.

Last year, the California Legislature changed the state’s law in response to the case.

“For survivors of the Holocaust and their families, the fight to take back ownership of art and other personal items stolen by the Nazis continues to traumatize those who have already gone through the unimaginable,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said when he signed the bill into law. “It is both a moral and legal imperative that these valuable and sentimental pieces be returned to their rightful owners, and I am proud to strengthen California’s laws to help secure justice for families.”

With a new law in place, lawyers for David Cassirer, the couple’s son, appealed to the Supreme Court and urged the justices to vacate, or set aside, the 9th Circuit’s latest ruling.

The court did just that on Monday.

It granted the appeal and told the 9th Circuit to reconsider the case under the new California law.

“I am very grateful to the Supreme Court and the state of California for insisting on applying principles of right and wrong,” David Cassirer said in a statement. “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.”

His attorneys, David Boies and Sam Dubbin, said they hope the court’s decision will clear the way for recovering the painting.

“There has never been a dispute that the Cassirer family was the rightful owner,” they said. “We hope Spain and its museum will now do the right thing and return the Nazi-looted art they are holding without further delay.”

But Thaddeus J. Stauber, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents the Spanish museum, said the legal dispute is far from resolved.

“Today’s brief order gives the 9th Circuit the first opportunity to examine if the new California Assembly Bill is valid and what, if any, impact it may have on the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation’s repeatedly affirmed rightful ownership,” he said. “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.”

Times staff writer Kevin Rector contributed to this report.