Supreme Court Orders Reconsideration of Nazi-Looted Painting Case

The decision revives a Jewish family’s decades-long effort to reclaim a Pissarro painting now held by a Spanish museum.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling, directing the 9th Circuit to reconsider the case under a new California law favoring Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
The painting, Camille Pissarro’s 1897 work 'Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain,' was forcibly sold by Lilly Cassirer to the Nazis in 1939 in exchange for exit visas to flee Germany.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid, which acquired the painting in the 1990s, asserts its ownership under Spanish law but acknowledges the painting’s Nazi-looted history.
The Cassirer family has pursued legal action since 2000 after discovering the painting in the Spanish museum, arguing for its return based on moral and legal grounds.
The case highlights ongoing international disputes over the restitution of art looted during the Holocaust and the legal complexities surrounding ownership claims.