In a dark chapter of history, thousands of Jewish families were forced to leave their homes and possessions during the Nazi regime in Germany. One of these stories is that of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, a courageous woman who had to make a difficult decision in 1939: to sell a valuable painting to obtain a visa and escape the looming horror, Rue St. Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain, a famous creation by the Franco-Danish artist Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro. However, this forced sale would trigger a decades-long legal battle for the return of the stolen artwork, which would ultimately end up in the hands of the renowned Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
The Ordeal of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer:
Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, a talented German-Jewish woman, lived a comfortable life in Berlin with her husband and son. However, with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the growing anti-Semitism in Germany, her world crumbled. In 1939, the family decided to flee the country, but they needed a visa that was unattainable without significant capital. It was then that they decided to sell a valuable painting inherited from their grandfather, “Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi, effet de pluie” by Camille Pissarro.
The Painting in the Wrong Hands:
Unfortunately, the sale of the painting was not enough to secure the visa, and the family was forced to leave Germany without it. The painting was lost in the chaos of World War II until, decades later, it was acquired by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain. Claude Cassirer, Lilly’s grandson and sole heir to her assets, discovered the existence of the painting and decided to fight for its restitution, a legal battle that would last for over half a century.
The Struggle for Justice:
Claude Cassirer’s claim was based on the fact that the sale of the painting was an act coerced by the Nazi regime and, therefore, illegal. However, the museum held onto the argument that its acquisition had been made in good faith and that too much time had passed to claim restitution. The legal battle extended for years, going through courts in the United States and Spain, sparking a debate about the ethics of keeping a stolen artwork from the Holocaust in a museum’s possession.
Delayed Justice:
Finally, in 2005, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Claude Cassirer and ordered the painting to be returned to its rightful owner or fair compensation to be provided. However, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum would not give up easily. After a series of negotiations, in 2016, an agreement was reached in which the institution would pay financial compensation to the Cassirer family and retain the artwork in its collection.
The story of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer and her stolen painting is just one of the many stories of injustice and loss during the Holocaust.