Jewish Group
Related: About this forumMy country's fight to keep Nazi-looted art is shameful
MADRID For a country that gave the world Picasso and boasts some of the finest art collections in its museums, the decision should have been simple. When Camille Pissarros Rue Saint-Honoré, a painting stolen by the Nazis from Lilly Cassirer, was discovered by her grandson Claude in 2000 in Madrids state-owned Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, Spain should have sent it to its rightful Jewish owners in California.
Instead, my country has spent the past 25 years, a fortune in legal bills and its reputation to keep it.
In doing so, Spain has placed itself in a dishonorable group of nations that obstruct the return of art stolen from victims of war and genocide, alongside countries such as Russia, Turkey and Romania. It is time for Madrid to acknowledge that, beyond the legal dispute, this case raises a far more essential moral issue.
No piece of art, however valuable, is worth betraying the memory of Holocaust victims.
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CTyankee
(65,842 posts)that I feel the art should absolutely be returned to its rightful owner. Often the owners will the artwork to a museum for the same reason -- to bring art to the masses, but it should be their decision. It was stolen. It needs to be returned.
Wonder Why
(5,301 posts)Did she accept the "fair market value" as fair? Doesn't say.
Did she feel she got swindled by the offer? Doesn't say.
Was she offered, as an alternative, the rights to the painting if and when it eventually turned up? Doesn't say.
I would recommend anyone interested in this case to look into it further. I checked Wikipedia's discussion of its provenance to see if she had gotten a stolen painting in good faith from an unethical art dealer who might have acquired it illegally but in Wikipedia, it is clear that Cassirer's purchase was good all the way back.