For nearly 10 years old resident of San Diego Claude Cassirer tries to regain Camille Pissarro painting "Rue Saint-Honore. Noon. Rain, which was stolen by the Nazis from his grandmother

For nearly 10 years old resident of San Diego Claude Cassirer (Claude Cassirer) is trying to bring a picture of Camille Pissarro (Camille Pissarro) « Rue Saint-Honore. Noon. Rain, which once belonged to his grandmother Lilly Cassirer Neubauer (Lilly Cassirer Neubauaer) . This valuable work she was forced to leave Germany to escape Nazi persecution in 1939. Since then, the painting went through numerous owners and finally turned into the Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, where to this day.

«Rue Saint-Honore" once bought a very Pissarro Claude Cassirer's great-grandfather, Julius (Julius). When Claude was still small, the picture graced the living room in the house of his grandmother Lilly in Berlin, where he often played. Claude's mother died shortly after his birth, and it was my grandmother bringing up her grandson. "It was my mother" - recalls Claude Cassirer.

came to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler (Adolf Hitler) Cassirer family members were scattered around the world. Father Claude, Fritz (Fritz), moved with his son in Prague, where he opened a newspaper for those who are in the same way as he fled from Nazi persecution. But after a while edition went bankrupt: the war approached, and brought with it the growth of anti-Semitism in Central Europe. Senior Cassirer was forced to send their offspring to boarding school in Britain. "At school I enjoyed great prestige, because he could translate the speeches of Hitler, who over the radio. Everyone wanted to know what he says, "- said Cassirer.

Grandma Lilly after the departure of his only grandson, moved to Munich, and married a famous physicist. It is one of the last members of the family fled from the horrors of the Holocaust. In 1939, she was forced to give a picture Pissarro representative of the Nazis in exchange for an exit visa, and thus avoid the fate of his sister, who died in the concentration camp Theresienstadt. "My grandmother never knew what happened then with the picture" - confessed Cassirer.

In 1940, shortly before the Nazi occupation, Claude went to France. A year later he managed to flee the country. After Casablanca (Morocco), he moved to Cleveland, USA. There he got the summer of 1941 without a penny in my pocket. At first he worked in a warehouse store owned by his distant relative, and then was an assistant photographer. After some time he began photographing and opened his own workshop.

In 1944 Cassirer married Beverly Bellin (Beverly Bellin), daughter of Jewish immigrants, immigrants from Russia. In 1957, after the death of her second husband, they came to Grandma Lilly. She herself died five years later and left a legacy of Cassirer all his possessions: an antique cabinet, which she was allowed to take with you during the flight from Germany, china, handed down in the family from generation to generation, and the right of the canvas by Pissarro.

According to Cassirer, and he and my grandmother always believed that once there is a picture. For years, they gave hope stories about how the former owners returned a stolen Nazi values are in museum and private collections.

And in 2000, when Claude and his wife already raised two children, retired and moved into a house in the suburbs of San Diego, they called one of the former clients of Cassirer and said that they had found a picture.

As it turned out, the fate of "Streets Saint-Honore "after the departure of Lilly Cassirer from Germany was a dramatic and eventful.

Nazi art dealer from Munich Shaydvimmer Jacob (Jakob Scheidwimmer), who in 1939 forced the grandmother of Claude" sell "to him now and then resold it to another dealer. The man fleeing from Nazi persecution, fled to Holland, however, and there he was soon caught up with the German occupation. The Gestapo confiscated the work and sent her back to Germany, where it was sold at auction in 1943, an anonymous buyer. Next paintings for some time was lost.

After the war the German government recognized the deal in 1939 and declared invalid Lilly lawful owner, if the picture could be found. In late 1950 the authorities even paid her a symbolic compensation of $ 13 thousand dollars (now the cost of cloth valued at 20 million dollars).

Information on "Rue Saint-Honore" reappeared in 1952. A certain New York gallery sold the painting collector from St. Louis, he sold it in 1976, an unknown dealer, but he was soon resold to its well-known Swiss collector, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza).

In 1988, Spain had paid him 50 million dollars belonging to him for showing collections in the country for 10 years. However, in 1993 the authorities finally bought the collection for 327 million dollars. Since that time, "Rue Saint-Honore" on display in the State Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, located near the famous Prado.

learning this, Cassirer, has only a small amount of money, turned to the World Jewish Congress to help them to begin negotiations with the Government of Spain. After fruitless attempts to persuade Madrid that he is the rightful owner of the painting, Claude Cassirer, in 2005 filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against the Kingdom of Spain and the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.

Despite the fact that Spain has signed an agreement on the return of the owners of works of art stolen by the Nazis, the authorities and the Fund did not recognize the claim, Cassirer lawful. The fact that Spain is a sovereign state, can not be responsible to the judicial authorities of other states, including the United States.

And now, five years, lawyers and judges argue about as to whether Cassirer first apply to the Spanish court, and they address the question of ownership of the painting by Pissarro, to his later claim may be considered by U.S. federal court. Can not they come to an agreement and one more question: should France pay for the misdeeds of another state - Nazi Germany. There is another controversial issue: if the Spanish side still speak in court, it is likely she will insist on the fact that Cassirer's grandmother has already received by the position. However, many lawyers believe that the reparations paid by postwar Germany, should not affect the claims of heirs.

It is now pending before the Board of the 11 jurors the Court of Appeals 9 th District of the United States. However, the final decision Cassirer, who next month will mark 89 years, probably will have to wait a long time.

Material prepared Ekaterina Guseva, AI

Source: latimes.com , artinvestment.ru