THE LONG ROAD TO JUSTICE FOR THE CASSIRER FAMILY AND ITS PLUNDERED PISSARRO.
| Author | Drawdy, Stephanie |
The tragic turn of events surrounding ownership of Camille Pissarro's Rue Saint- Honore. apres-midi, ejfet de pluie began in 1933--six years before its Nazi-sanctioned theft. It was then that a law went into effect in Germany that gave an unchecked government the untethered power to pass unjust laws. By early 1938, the menacing rod of that power demanded certain inhabitants (Jews) register their valuables. Many complied. German-Jewish collector Lilly Cassirer was among them, listing the Pissarro as one of her assets.
Not surprisingly, an art-lusting official made quick work of 'acquiring' the Pissarro. That theft set in motion a string of exchanges that placed Rue Saint-Honore in the hands of the Kingdom of Spain, its current possessor. Since the early 1990s, Spain's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional, self-described as 'Everyone's Museum', has housed and displayed Rue Saint-Honore. (1) Yet, since the early 2000s, Spain and the Spanish-controlled Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation that owns and administers the Museum have actively rebuffed one particular group--the family of Lilly Cassirer who have made repeated, failed requests for return of the Pissarro.
The ethical stance Spain has taken as signatory to and endorser of such international agreements as the Washington Principles that encourage return of Nazi-looted art is seemingly diluted by its refusal to return Rue Saint-Honore. Notwithstanding one US court describing Spain's approach as "moralistic preening", Spain has been unrelenting over the last two decades in its assertion of ownership over the Pissarro. That alleged ownership now faces serious scrutiny following the US Supreme Court's remand of the Cassirer Heirs' restitution suit for determination of which law should dictate its outcome.
THE PISSARRO'S PROVENANCE
The Pissarro's Pre-WWII Provenance
Impressionist master Jacob Abraham 'Camille' Pissarro created Rue Saint-Honore from a hotel window in Paris' 1st arrondissement in the late 1800s. (2) In 1898, Pissarro sold the painting to his agent, French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, and the bustling Place du Theatre Francais scene was sold to Paul Cassirer two years later. (3) Cassirer and his cousin Bruno were the proud owners of a celebrated and novel Berlin hybrid, Kunst and Verlagsanstalt, wherein they offered art and publishing and, as forward- thinking gallerists, were the first to show French Impressionists in Germany. (4)
Over the next few decades, the painting passed through the Cassirer family until Lilly Cassirer inherited it in 1926. (5) Its serene beauty became a focal point in the home of the recently widowed Lilly and her visiting grandson, Claude. (6)
Soon, that serene German-Jewish home and many others would be disrupted. Following the 1933 passage of the deceptively titled Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich, the newly seated Chancellor Adolph Hitler and his cabinet were able to enact laws without the German parliament's approval. (7) This 'Enabling Act' ensured that justice in Nazi-controlled jurisdictions would lie dormant--for a time.
1939 Aryanisation (AKA Theft) of the Pissarro
On 26 April 1938, the fateful Decree for the Reporting of Jewish-Owned Property went into effect in Germany and in the recently-annexed Austria. From love seats to life insurance, the Nazis wanted details on property valued at more than RM 5,000 (approximately US $30,000 today). (8) Within the first three months of the legislation's life, approximately 700,000 Jewish citizens dutifully complied, providing data for a ledger of goods valued at nearly RM 7 billion. (9) The eventual tally under the Decree was replete with works of art, including the Pissarro. All would soon become stolen property.
By early 1939, German Jews such as Lilly had no civil rights in their homeland, had lost German citizenship, and needed Nazi permission to travel outside the country. (10) It was then that a state-endorsed appraiser and Berlin art dealer from the Reichskammer der bildenden Kunste, Jakob Scheidwimmer, knocked on the door of Lilly Cassirer and her second husband, accomplished scientist Professor Otto Neubauer. (11) The order of business: a demand for Lilly's signature on a contract for sale of Rue Saint- Honore for 900 Reichsmarks (US $360 at that time)--a trifle even then. (12) With the looming reality that she could not leave Germany with the Pissarro and her desire to avoid internment and likely death (specifically, a sentence at the Dachau concentration camp according to Claude Cassirer's recollection), Lilly consented to the sale. (13)
After parting with the painting, visas were issued for Lilly and Professor Neubauer to exit the hell of Germany. Lilly Cassirer never received the minimal funds offered for the Pissarro as they were deposited into a blocked bank account (a typical Nazi manoeuvre). (14)
The Pissarro's WWII and Post-WWII Provenance
Rue Saint-Honore's route in the years after it left Lilly Cassirer's possession is somewhat circuitous due to the veiled misdeeds of various actors. Its first known stop was Rotterdam where it was in the possession of Jewish collector Jakob Sulzbacher who had been "forced" by Scheidwimmer to trade three German paintings for the Pissarro. (15) It was seized by German forces and was next found with artist Ari Walter Kampf whose family's Nazi ties still raise questions in the current century. (16)
By 1943, the Pissarro was back in Berlin to be featured at the Hans W. Lange auction house where it brought in RM 95,000. (17) This wartime valuation shows how (bitterly) laughable Scheidwimmer's RM 900 pre-war appraisal had been.
After the war, Lilly Cassirer Neubauer filed a claim for restitution in 1948 that resulted in a 1958 decree that confirmed her ownership of Rue Saint-Honore and awarded her financial compensation for its loss while keeping her right to its restitution should it "surface". (18)
A few years later in 1951, the painting indeed did "surface" according to the Foundation. (19) More to the point (as the Heirs point out in their court filings), Rue Saint- Honore was "smuggled" into California--in contravention of US Military Law No. 52 that made it a crime to export valuable artworks looted by the Nazis from German territories occupied by the United States. (20) Notable also is the fact that US Military Law No. 52 provides that forced sales such as that which Lilly Cassirer was pushed into are void on their face. (21)
The Foundation tells of fruitless efforts in the 1950s "to determine if the Painting could have been a looted or stolen artwork" by Gallerist Frank Perls and E. Coe Kerr of M. Knoedler & Co: "No consulted source revealed a Cassirer or Nazi connection." (22) The Foundation goes on to describe other resources that failed to mention the Cassirer connection to Rue Saint-Honore, including a 1950s article in Connoisseur magazine's New York and London editions as well as a photo card from the Frick Art Library Photo Archive. (23)
In the mid-1970s, with a partially removed label attached to the verso of Rue Saint-Honore that suggested its history included time in Berlin, New York City gallerist and former president of the Art Dealers Association of America Stephen Hahn (24) sold the Pissarro for US $275,000 to Swiss Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, considered to be "one of the world's most prolific private art collectors". (25)
According to the Cassirer Heirs, the Baron's family was "generally known" to have been "early and avid supporters of Adolf Hitler" with "a history of purchasing Nazi looted art". (26)
In the late 1980s, while the Baron's collection was reaching multi-billion dollar status as "the most valuable [] in private hands", a "large portion" of the collection was loaned to Spain, totalling over 780 works, including the Pissarro. (27)
In 1989, Spain began investigating the Pissarro's ownership history--from 1980 forward when it was already under the Baron's control. (28)
In 1993, the Baron's loan to Spain became a sale, with Spain financing the purchase for just over $350 million (though the Collection was valued at $1 to $2 billion). (29) At this time, Spain also designated the Pissarro part of its cultural heritage, thereby placing restrictions on its transfer. (30)
SPAIN'S MACHIAVELLIAN APPROACH TO RESTITUTION AND ITS DENIAL OF THE CASSIRER HEIRS' REQUEST FOR RETURN OF THE PISSARRO
The Kingdom of Spain has an international reputation for supporting the idea of Nazi-loot restitution while simultaneously charging admission to view its prized Nazi-looted masterwork (the Pissarro) in its Golden Triangle of Art. (31) The modus operandi undergirding Spain's snubbing of the Cassirer Heirs' valid restitution claim also appears to be at the heart of Spain's underwhelming investigation of its own Holocaust-era activities and the provenance research requirements for its museums:
In 1997, Spain established a historical commission aimed at investigating the country's economic relations with the Third Reich. A year later, a final report was issued which has been heavily criticized by experts in the field. The Commission did not investigate Spain's role as a transit country for potentially looted cultural property or art looted from Jews that reached Spain in other ways. Spain does not have a restitution law that covers cultural and religious Jewish property that was spoliated during World War II. Spain's cultural institutions do not conduct provenance research on cultural and religious property. (32) Following...
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