An important California law on the restitution of stolen property

Los Angeles (California). On September 16, 2024, the state of California passed a new law to facilitate the return of works of art stolen by the Nazis. This Assembly Bill was taken in reaction to the decision of January 9, 2024 by which the Court of Appeal of the 9th Circuit (United States) dismissed the heir of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer who had to give up under duress, in 1940, the canvas of Camille Pissarro titled Rue Saint-Honoré, rain effect (1897). For the appeal judges, American law had to give way to Spanish law, which did not have a specific regime concerning the restitution of property plundered by the Third Reich. The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid was therefore the legitimate owner of this work acquired in 1993.

Camille Pissarro, Rue Saint-Honoré in the afternoon. Rain effect1897, oil on canvas.

© Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

To prevent questions of national jurisdiction between several states from sowing further confusion, the new law affirms that Californian law must apply to requests for restitution of property stolen by the Nazis. As Governor Gavin Newsom recalled, “For Holocaust survivors and their families, the struggle to regain ownership of artwork and other personal items stolen by the Nazis continues to traumatize those who have already experienced the unimaginable.”

With this law, the Thyssen-Bornemisza case could face a new trial. Sam Dubbin, lawyer for the Cassirer family, welcomed a text “essential for truth, history and justice”. According to the latter, the law “sends a clear message from the people of California to all museums and governments – including the Spanish government – ​​that museums should not have the right to hold stolen works of art”.

Similar Posts