Paris Court Orders Sotheby's To Return Pissarro Painting To Heirs

(MENAFN- USA Art News) A Paris court has ordered Sotheby's to return Camille Pissarro's 1902 painting,“Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée,” to the descendants of Jewish banker and art collector Salomon Flavian. The Impressionist canvas, depicting a port city in western France, was allegedly seized by the Nazis during World War II, according to Le Figaro.

A group of Flavian's heirs filed a lawsuit against Sotheby's in Paris in September, claiming they were improperly excluded from a prior settlement reached with other family members. Sotheby's London sold the painting in 2024 for £1.2 million (approximately $1.5 million at the time). The auction house stated the work was offered“pursuant to a settlement between the current owner and heirs of Salomon Flavian,” whose collection was seized by the Nazis in Paris in 1941. Sotheby's lawyers asserted in court that the heirs' consent had been secured through Mondex Corporation, a firm specializing in the recovery of looted art and assets from World War II, as reported by The Art Newspaper.

However, seven plaintiffs testified in court in September that only two relatives, Gilles and Nicholas Flavian, had signed the agreement, and the remaining heirs were not consulted, the newspaper noted. In its decision issued on Thursday, the court invalidated all sales of the painting since its original seizure and mandated its return. The court concluded that the Flavian family had established Salomon's ownership of the painting, its confiscation by the Germans, and his post-war efforts to recover his assets. Sotheby's was also ordered to disclose the identity of the 2024 buyer to the family, facing a daily fine of €1,000 (about $1,123 ) if it fails to comply, Le Figaro reported, adding that the judgment takes immediate effect even if appealed.

James Palmer, a consultant for Mondex Corporation, told ARTnews via email that an appeal would be filed“forthwith.” Palmer argued that both the archives of dealer Paul Rosenberg and the 1939 Pissarro catalogue raisonné“both clearly identify Edward Le Bas as the owner of the painting from 1939 to the early 1950s.” This suggests the painting could not have been seized from Flavian during the 1940s, he stated. Palmer also highlighted France's current lack of a formal restitution framework, which he claims disadvantages both the state and claimants, contrasting it with adjudication bodies in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. These bodies, he noted,“operate on a crucial general principle: that the benefit of the doubt is presumed in the claimant's favor unless there is evidence to the contrary.” Regarding Le Bas's ownership, Palmer concluded,“These crucial facts were not commented upon by the court in its decision and can therefore be presumed to have been given no significant consideration, which is a flaw in the judicial assessment of the case. We are confident that when the vast amount of complex provenance research evidence is properly understood and considered that the court of appeal will reach a different conclusion.”

Source: ARTnews

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