French court orders return of Nazi-looted Pissarro painting to Jewish collector’s heirs

Painting was seized in 1941; court requires Sotheby’s to identify individual who bought the work at 2024 auction so that it can be returned to Jewish owner’s descendants

By AFP Today, 4:00 pm

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Two members of staff hold the painting by late Franco-Danish painter Camille Pissarro “Darse de peche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, apres-midi ensoleillee” (Fishing dock and Duquesne basin, Dieppe, sunny afternoon) during the photo call at the Sotheby’s auction house, in central London, on June 19, 2024, ahead of the Sotheby’s major Modern & Contemporary art auction of the summer season. (JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP)

PARIS — A French court Thursday ordered a painting by French impressionist Camille Pissarro to be returned to the descendants of its rightful owner after Nazis stole it during World War II.

Banker and art collector Salomon Flavian bought the 1902 painting, “Darse de peche et bassin Duquesne” (“Fishing dock and Duquesne basin”), in 1935 before the Nazis seized it in 1941 when they occupied part of France.

An unknown buyer in 2024 bought it for 1.2 million pounds ($1.6 million) at auction at Sotheby’s in London.

The Paris court found “all successive sales of the disputed painting since its spoliation” to be null and void, and “ordered the restitution of the work, wherever and in whoever’s possession it may be found,” to Flavian’s descendants, according to a ruling seen by AFP.

It ordered Sotheby’s to disclose to Flavian’s family the identity of the buyer from the 2024 sale within two months, subject to a penalty of 1,000 euros ($1,120) for each day beyond that deadline.

Several artworks stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families have been at the center of court cases in Europe in recent years.

This is just the latest involving a Pissarro painting.

In 2021, a Berlin museum handed back, then repurchased, another Pissarro work, “Une Place a la Roche-Guyon” (“A Square in La Roche Guyon”).

That same year, a French Holocaust survivor who spent years trying to win back “La Bergere rentrant des moutons,” or “Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep,” renounced her claim to the work to end a feud with an American university. She had been recognized as its rightful owner in 2016.

In 2020, France’s top appeals court rejected a bid by an American couple to keep “La Cueillette” (“Picking Peas”) so that the descendants of the Jewish businessman who originally owned it could reclaim the painting.