From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Jewish art collector’s heirs sue NYC’s Met Museum for Pissarro painting sold under Nazi duress
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The heirs to a Jewish art collector are suing New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in a French court, arguing that a Camille Pissarro painting in its collection was sold by their forebear under Nazi duress and rightfully belongs to them, according to The New York Times.
The museum, which has faced a number of complaints regarding Nazi-looted art in its possession, says the collector, department store owner Max Julius Braunthal, was paid fair market value for “Haystacks, Morning, Éragny,” an 1899 work by Pissarro, a noted impressionist painter who was Jewish.
Braunthal sold the work for 100,000 francs in 1941, during the Nazi occupation of France. His seven heirs who are suing the Met argue that the price he was paid is irrelevant because, under French law, sales made under Nazi duress are considered null and void, the Times reports.
The heirs say they have attempted for five years to deal privately with the august New York museum prior to filing the suit, to no effect. The Times report, citing experts, says compelling the Met to obey the French law would require a lengthy court process.
Braunthal, born in Germany in 1878, fled that country for France after the Nazis came to power, but was eventually forced to sell all of his collection following the German invasion. He was rounded up by the Nazis along with thousands of other Jews in France in 1942.
He survived the Holocaust but died of cancer in 1946.
The Times of Israel Community.