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(JTA) — The family of a Jewish woman who sold a valuable painting under duress while fleeing the Nazis has appealed a decision by a U.S. judge allowing a museum in Spain to maintain possession.<\/p>\n
The family of Lilly Cassirer on Friday appealed the ruling handed down earlier this month in the case of the 1897 painting \u201cRue Saint-Honor\u00e9, Apr\u00e8s-midi, Effet de Pluie,\u201d a Paris street scene by Camille Pissarro, which is in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.<\/p>\n
Judge John Walter of the Los Angeles District Court of California ruled on June 4 that that Spanish law applied in the case, and the law did not require the painting\u2019s return. The ruling came after a decade-long dispute over ownership.<\/p>\n
In 2005, Cassirer’s grandson Claude sued for restitution of the painting, which his German-born grandmother sold in 1939 to an art dealer for the equivalent of $360 as she was fleeing her homeland from the Nazis. Cassirer\u2019s father-in-law, Julius, had purchased the painting from the painter.<\/p>\n
The museum does not dispute that the painting was stolen, but is fighting the lawsuit on technicalities, including international jurisdiction issues and time limitation on restitution claims.<\/p>\n
Eventually the painting was acquired by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1976 and has been displayed in Madrid since the museum opened in late 1992. It was insured for over $10 million.<\/p>\n
The Jewish Federation of San Diego County has agreed to be a co-plaintiff on the appeals case with the Cassirer family, according to NBC San Diego.<\/p>\n