Supreme Court revives fight over painting stolen by Nazis

David Cassirer, the great-grandson of Lilly Cassirer, poses for a photo outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Jan. 18. Lilly Cassirer surrendered her family’s priceless Camille Pissarro painting to the Nazis in exchange for safe passage out of Germany during the Holocaust. The Supreme Court is hearing the case about the stolen artwork now in the collection of a Spanish museum in Madrid. AP photo/Susan Walsh, File photo
Jessica GreskoThe Associated PressThe Supreme Court Thursday, April 21, kept alive a California man’s hope of reclaiming a valuable impressionist masterpiece taken from his family by the Nazis and now on display in a Spanish museum.The question in the case was not directly about whether San Diego resident David Cassirer can get back the streetscape by French impressionist Camille Pissarro. Instead, the question was how to determine whose property laws – Spain’s or California’s – ultimately apply to resolving the dispute over “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain.” The painting of a Paris street with horse-drawn carriages and a fountain is now worth tens of millions of dollars.Lower courts had concluded Spanish property law should ultimately gover
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