California lawmakers have overruled one of the nation’s most powerful federal courts by upholding a new state law designed to reunite Jewish families with iconic Impressionist paintings looted by Nazis early in World War II.
The legislation, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Monday, was created in response to a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in January. The ruling found that the painting – “Rue Saint-Honoré at Evening. Effect of Rain” by Camille Pissarro – was legally owned by a Spanish museum and did not need to be returned to the American descendant of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, who handed the work to the Nazis for a visa to flee from Germany in 1939.
The ruling after nearly two decades of court battles set the stage for a renewed last-ditch effort by the family to reclaim the masterpiece, estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars. Assembly Bill 2867 explains that California law requires Nazi-looted artworks such as Pissarro’s – as well as other valuables stolen during past or future acts of genocide or political persecution – to be returned to their rightful owners.
“For Holocaust survivors and their families, the fight to reclaim art and other personal belongings stolen by the Nazis continues to traumatize those who have experienced the unimaginable,” Newsom said in a statement. “It is a moral and legal imperative that these important and sentimental pieces be returned to their rightful owners, and I am proud to strengthen California law to help secure justice for the family.”
Newsom signed the bill during a small gathering with families of Holocaust survivors at the LA Holocaust Museum. Neubauer’s grandson, David Cassirer, who lives in Colorado, attended the event and praised Newsom and the lawmakers behind the bill — including Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus — for ” take a definitive stand in favor of the true owner of the stolen art.”
Cassirer said his late father, Claude Cassirer, who discovered that Pissarro’s paintings had survived the war and opened a family fight to return twenty years ago, would be happy with the support of his adopted country.
“As a Holocaust survivor, the proudest day of my father’s life was in 1947, when he became a US citizen,” Cassirer said. “They would be very happy, and grateful, if the people of the state of California had taken action to ensure the return of looted art to its rightful owner.”
Thaddeus Stauber, a lawyer for the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Madrid museum that holds Pissarro, said on Monday that he could not immediately comment.
The new law is broad in the sense that it sets out clear standards on how claims of looted works of art should be handled under California law – providing a clearer path to reclaiming such art for American families suffering political persecution in the past, now or in the future.
However, it is also extremely appropriate in the application to Cassirer’s case, which is built around and references.
Neubauer searched for the painting for years after the war without luck and died without knowing if it had survived the war.
Forty years later, in the early 2000s, Claude Cassirer’s grandson discovered that the painting, to which he left his rights, was still alive and in the collection of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, a famous museum owned by the Kingdom. from Spain.
When Claude Cassirer asked for the painting to be returned, the museum refused. So he sued in US federal court.
In January, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled that the nature of the dispute required an ancient Spanish law that allows title to stolen goods to be transferred over time – and justified the museum’s acquisition of the painting – rather than a modern California law that comports with international agreements by calling for The Nazis looted the artwork back to the original, with the right.
One of the judges on the panel, all of whom were appointed by President George W. Bush, said he agreed with the decision even though it was against his “moral compass.” When a larger group of judges reviewed the decision, some found that the smaller panel had misapplied the law — but it was overruled.
By introducing the new law, California lawmakers said they thought the court had misinterpreted state law. The text of the new law specifically states that it applies to Cassirer’s case and should change the outcome.
Sam Dubbin, the Cassirers’ longtime attorney, said the family will now formally challenge the 9th Circuit’s decision, including citing the new law, which he called a “bright line” that would “prevent the ability of museums with stolen art to delay and distort , when truth and justice are easy to achieve.”
“This new law is important for truth, history, and justice, for the Cassirer family, and for future cases,” Dubbin said. What form the family’s legal challenge will come in, and which court, is not yet clear.
The lengthy court battle has raised the profile – and possibly the value – of Pissarro’s own paintings and could serve as a useful precedent for other families looking to return looted art. Lawyers, art historians and others involved in the trial around the world have watched Cassirer’s case closely.
Gabriel said his goal was the country’s new law to protect all victims of genocide, persecution and political looting.
“Our efforts will make it clear that California law must prevail over foreign law, that California stands with Holocaust survivors, and that these cases must be decided on the basis of truth, justice, and morality, not the technical misuse of law,” he said.
David Schaecter, president of the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA, said Holocaust survivors and their families are “very grateful” to Gabriel, Newsom and other lawmakers for passing the new measure.
“Looting art and other assets from Jewish families was an important part of Hitler’s plan to exterminate the Jewish people, and remove all traces of Jewish life and culture. Spain’s insistence on keeping the Pissarro Cassirers perpetuates the crimes of the Nazi regime, and humiliates the memory of six million Jewish souls,” he said. Schechter.
“The people of California should be proud that their lawmakers did not allow this to happen.”
