New details of the dispute by Claude Cassirer of the American Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza

Federal Court of California ruled that the Real Madrid Foundation Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Kingdom of Spain could be brought to justice heir to the pre-war owner of Pissarro painting" Rue Saint-Honore. Noon. Rain », despite the fact that no part in the confiscation of work they did not take.

resident of San Diego, Claude Cassirer (Claude Cassirer) tries to return the canvas almost 10. The work belonged to his grandmother, a Jew in Berlin Lilly Cassirer Neubauer (Lilly Cassirer Neubauer), which in 1939 was forced to give Pissarro Nazis to get exit visas from Germany. For several decades, the picture passed from hand to hand and finally was in the collection of Baron Hans Heinrich Swiss Thyssen-Bornemisza (Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza). In 1993, his collection was bought by Spain. It is located in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, located near the famous Prado.

In May 2005, Cassirer gave to the fund, and Spain to court, but the representative stated that it is immune from suit in U.S. courts. They relied on the American law on foreign sovereign immunity, which gives protection from prosecution to foreign countries. True, the law has a clause - for example, you can sue, if it comes to property, which was selected in defiance of international law. But the fund and Spain argue that this is not one of them, as the painting confiscated by Nazi Germany, and they got it totally legally. In addition, they said, the fund is not a "commercial relationship" with the United States, and this is a necessary condition for the reservation.

12 August this year, Judge Pamela Rymer (Pamela Rymer) San Francisco took the side of Cassirer, stating that the plaintiffs are entitled to claim restitution of "any" illegally seized property, and not only that were selected directly by the country. She also gave many examples showing that the "commercial activity" in America Fund still leads: he sells there posters and books, issues permits for the publication of reproductions of paintings by American authors pay fees for articles in their directories, provides information located in U.S. Spanish tourist organizations, lends his exhibits American museums, shows in his paintings borrowed from them, etc. The Foundation even allowed to shoot the film, which was shown painting Pissarro (tape appeared on airplanes Iberia Airlines).

According to counsel Foundation Thyssen-Bornemisza Taddeusha Shtaubera (Thaddeus Stauber), Rymer decision may be challenged. In any case, they are ready to provide some evidence that the painting belongs to the Spanish law.

material prepared Yulia Maksimova, AI

Sources: theartnewspaper.com , artinvestment.ru