[CPProt.net] Madrid museum says California suit has 'no legal basis'

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

Madrid museum says California suit has 'no legal basis'

CIARAN GILES
Associated Press

MADRID, Spain - Spain's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum on Thursday dismissed a
lawsuit filed by a California man seeking to recover an Impressionist
painting he claims was taken from his family by the Nazis, saying the suit
had no legal basis.

The Thyssen said in a statement it has yet to be notified of the suit, filed
Tuesday in Los Angeles by Claude Cassirer, 84, of San Diego - but, as on
other occasions, it insisted "the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation's ownership
of the painting is indisputable" and that its purchase "fulfilled all legal
validity requirements."

Cassirer claims that the painting was stolen from his Jewish grandmother
through a forced sale. He says that by refusing to return it, the Spanish
government and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation are "continuing
the Nazi legacy instead of going out of their way to repudiate it."

The museum said it has been aware of Cassirer's demands through newspaper
articles over the years but has never formally heard from him.

The museum, which boasts one of the richest collections of artworks in the
world, said it acquired the painting, Pissarro's "Rue Saint-Honore
apre-midi. Effet de Pluie (Rue Saint-Honore Afternoon, Rain Effect)," in
1993 along with the rest of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection.

At the time, the museum commissioned a prestigious international array of
lawyers to exercise due diligence in certifying that Baron Hans Heinrich
Thyssen-Bornemisza had been the lawful owner of the works being bought and
that the acquisition was legitimate.

The gallery also said given that the painting has been on public view since
its acquisition and considering the number of years that have passed, the
foundation is the legal owner under Spain's civil law code.

"Right now, there is no Spanish norm or international regulation applicable
in Spain that backs Mr. Claude Cassirer's petition," the museum said.

The 1897 painting depicts a Parisian boulevard lined with dark carriages, a
few bare trees and a scattering of people braving the weather. The painting
apparently changed hands several times after the war and its whereabouts
were a mystery to the Cassirer family until a friend spotted it in the
Madrid museum.

The baron is said to have bought it in 1976 and included it in the 800 works
sold to the Spanish government in 1993 for around $250 million.

The baron died in 2002. The museum is run by a board comprising
representatives of the government, the baron's widow and independent
experts.

The Culture Ministry said it had no comment to make on the issue and had not
been notified of the suit.

David Cassirer, the son of the plaintiff and a family spokesman, estimated
the value of the painting at about $20 million.

The lawsuit was bolstered by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last June that
allowed California resident Maria Altmann, 88, to sue the government of
Austria to retrieve $150 million worth of Gustav Klimt paintings stolen by
the Nazis, said Stuart Dunwoody, one of Cassirer's attorneys.

An estimated 600,000 works of art were stolen by the Nazis during Adolf
Hitler's rule in Germany.

ON THE NET

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum: http://www.museothyssen.org