 |
| Rue St. Honoré, après midi, effet de pluie by Camille Pissarro is the object of a claim for restitution: Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation |
"By 1951, the Painting had made its way to the U.S. after changing hands several times in Germany. In July, the Frank Perls Gallery (“Perls”) in Beverly Hills, California, sold the Painting to an art collector, Sidney Brody, for $14,850.[11]Less than a year later, in February of 1952, Perls (for Brody) consigned the Painting with Knoedler Gallery (which you may remember for other reasons) for sale in New York.[12]Missouri-based art collector, Sydney Schoenberg, was next to purchase the Painting; he sold it through New York’s Stephen Hahn Gallery several years later on consignment in 1975 or 1976"
- Case Review: Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, Center for Art Lawhttps://archive.is/N01Tn#selection-839.0-855.186
On Sidney Brody's rapid return of the Pissarro to Perls, see Iker Seisdedos's article in El Pais: "The Thyssen’s disputed Pissarro: a masterpiece that symbolizes the ongoing struggle to return Nazi-looted art":
"The painting arrived in Los Angeles in the possession of a German merchant called Frank Perls, who was Jewish – “ironically,” notes Cassirer, who describes him as a “super-thief.” During the war, Perls had worked as a translator for the US Army. He sold the work to a noted art lover called Sidney Brody, who was also Jewish and returned it a few months later because, according to Cassirer, he found out that it was a looted piece. A year later, Perls sold the painting again to the heir to a department store fortune in Saint Louis, where it remained for 20 years. It was offered to Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza through a well-known New York dealer, Stephen Hahn."
https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=VGPS0A541611
On Stephen Hahn, see the 2005 lawsuit filed against him jointly by two different families who were seeking to reclaim Holocaust-linked art. Artnews reported on the lawsuit in "Judge Supports Suit to Reclaim Profits from Nazi Loot".
"NEW YORK—A California judge has ruled that two families may proceed with their lawsuit against art dealer Stephen Hahn to recover the profits Hahn is alleged to have earned on sales, some 30 years ago, of works by Pablo Picasso and Camille Pissarro that had been looted during World War II. This is believed to be the first case in the U.S. in which the heirs of Nazi victims have sought compensation from an intermediary.
Claude Cassirer and Thomas C. Bennigson had filed the joint complaint in Santa Barbara, Calif., against Hahn, former president of the Art Dealers Association of America, on July 19. They claimed that Hahn had sold the two paintings without the consent of the legal owners and therefore must hold the profits for them. All three men live in California."
The Artnews article mentions two separate cases in which Hahn played a role. One was Picasso's Femme en Blanc :
"The Picasso was looted by the Nazis in 1940 from Paris art dealer Justin K. Thannhauser, to whom it had been sent for safekeeping by Bennigson’s grandmother Carlota Landsberg, of Berlin. Dealer Hahn imported the painting from France in 1975 and sold it a year later to James and Marilyn Alsdorf of Chicago for $357,000, the complaint states. Bennigson located the Picasso, now worth some $10 million, in 2002, when Marilyn Alsdorf prepared to sell the painting, and the Art Loss Register identified it as stolen. Bennigson has filed a separate claim against Marilyn Alsdorf."
(see also: "The FBI seizes disputed Picasso" Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-oct-27-et-quick27.5-story.html) 27 Oct 2004 — The circa-1922 painting, “Femme en Blanc” (Woman in White) is believed to have been stolen by the Nazis during World War II from the grandmother of Oakland-based heir Thomas Bennigson. The painting was purchased in 1975 by Chicago art collectors James and Marilyn Alsdorf before its tie to the Nazis was discovered. In 2002, Bennigson sued to have the painting returned to him. Although the painting has been taken into U.S. custody, an FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday that the artwork will remain in Alsdorf’s residence until the courts can determine the rightful owner. )
The other was Pissarro's Rue St. Honoré, après midi, effet de pluie:
"Cassirer’s grandmother Lilly Cassirer-Neubauer, of Munich, was forced to sell the Pissarro to a Nazi agent in 1939 for a nominal amount before she fled from Germany. Hahn subsequently acquired the painting and, circa 1976, sold it to Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, who later transferred it over to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation in Madrid."
