Dispute over Prized Pissarro: Holocaust survivor can sue Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
- September 09, 2009 17:42
LOS ANGELES — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Claude Cassirer's case against the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and the Spanish government can go forward. Cassirer, of San Diego, claimed his grandmother was forced to sell the 1897 painting by French impressionist Camille Pissarro for what was then $360 to get a visa to escape from Nazi Germany in 1939. Valued at $20 million, "Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie" is just one of an estimated 650,000 artworks looted by the Nazis.