French court to rule on Nazi-looted Pissarro painting

A French court will rule Tuesday who really owns a painting of women picking peas by Impressionist master Camille Pissarro, more than 70 years after it was seized from a Jewish art collector.

The dispute began earlier this year when the painting, “La Cueillette des Pois,” went on display in Paris during a retrospective of Pissarro’s work, alerting family members of the original owner, Simon Bauer.

Bauer, a wealthy businessman with a sizable art collection in 1943, was dispossessed by the anti-Semitic wartime French government which collaborated with the Nazis.

After narrowly escaping death when a train drivers’ strike stopped him from being sent to an extermination camp, Bauer recovered some of his collection after the war and received compensation — but never La Cueillette.

In early 2017, his descendants spotted an opportunity when the painting was lent to the Marmottan museum in Paris by Americans Bruce and Robbi Toll, who had bought it in 1995 for $800,000 (690,000 euros at current exchange rates).

They launched legal action and in May a court granted their request to have it impounded pending a ruling on its on ownership.

— AFP