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For decades, a Jewish family has sought the return of their beloved painting — can the Supreme Court make that happen?

JL;DR SUMMARY The protracted legal battle over a Nazi-looted painting by Camille Pissarro, valued at over $30 million, takes a pivotal turn as it reaches the United States Supreme Court. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

HolocaustSupreme CourtCultural HeritageNazi Looted ArtCassirer FamilyArt RestitutionLegal PrecedentPissarroForeign Sovereign Immunities ActThyssen Bornemisza Museum

Places mentioned

Madrid, Madrid Province, Spain
"Since the painting was discovered at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid in 2000, the Cassirers have been fighting to regain it."
Washington DC, United States
"On Jan. 18, the painting will take center stage at the United States Supreme Court."
Berlin, Germany
"The Aryanization of German society, by which laws and regulations were placed on Jews by the Nazis starting in 1933, was a practice run for the art plundering operation that took place across the European continent in the 1940s."
Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"He and his father escaped to Prague, but he was soon sent to boarding school in England when Czechoslovakia became unsafe for Jews."
London, United Kingdom
"Bruno fled to England and started a new publishing company."
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
"He was taken to Cleveland, where he started over as an immigrant refugee."
Paris, France
"A Munich-based art dealer, Jackob Scheidwimmer, was appointed by the Nazis as the official appraiser for their estate."
Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
"It was next sold at a Nazi auction in Düsseldorf."
Beverly Hills, California, United States
"In 1951, the painting was smuggled from Germany to California and sold at the Frank Perls Gallery in Beverly Hills to the real estate mogul Sydney Brody."
New York City, New York, United States
"The next year, Brody asked New York Citys Knoedler Gallery to sell the work, which was purchased by Sydney Schoenberg from St. Louis."
Bern, Switzerland
"The Baron kept the painting at his estate in Switzerland until 1988 when the Kingdom of Spain leased his art collection for 10 years."

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Cairo Item ID 51565
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-05-14 05:31:37 UTC
Curated 2025-05-14 08:32:17 UTC