French court to rule on WWII looted Pissarro painting

PARIS, France — A French court will rule Tuesday on an American couple’s appeal against an order to hand over a painting they bought which had been looted from a Jewish collector during World War II.

Bruce and Robbi Toll, wealthy art collectors, bought the painting “La Cueillette” (“Picking Peas”) by Impressionist master Camille Pissarro in 1995.

They say they did not know it had been seized from Jewish collector Simon Bauer in 1943 by the anti-Semitic wartime French government which collaborated with the Nazis.

But in November, a French court ruled that Bauer’s descendants were the rightful owners of the painting, which the Tolls bought at Christie’s in New York for $800,000 (690,000 euros).

The verdict mirrors other legal disputes over art and property looted from Jewish owners by the Nazis which were subsequently sold on to often unsuspecting new owners.

Bauer was dispossessed of 93 paintings in 1943 by the French government.

The wealthy businessman narrowly escaped death when a train drivers’ strike stopped him from being sent to a concentration camp.

Bauer recovered a few of his paintings after the war, but never La Cueillette, which Pissarro had painted in gouache in 1887.

— AFP