Spain’s Thyssen-Bornemisza museum has won its long U.S. legal battle to hold onto a Camille Pissarro masterpiece that was confiscated by Nazis from its Jewish owner in 1939 as she fled Germany.
While expressing some misgivings about the museum’s actions, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled on Tuesday that it is the legal owner of the painting, after acquiring it decades ago along with other artworks from Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. The American heirs of the original owner had alleged the baron knew the painting was stolen when he bought it from a New York gallery in 1976.
