La Mesa heirs of Nazi-looted Pissarro painting lose legal battle to Spanish museum – The San Diego Union-Tribune
After nearly two decades of litigation that has included a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Tuesday that a Spanish museum can keep a painting that was looted from the German Jewish family of a former La Mesa resident though one judge expressed moral misgivings about the decision.
Sometimes our oaths of office and an appreciation of our proper roles as appellate judges require that we concur in a result at odds with our moral compass, Judge Consuelo Callahan wrote in a concurring opinion. For me, this is such a situation.
Callahan also wrote that, while not legally obligated to do so, Spain … should have voluntarily relinquished the Painting in accordance with international agreements it has signed regarding the return of Nazi-confiscated art.
Tuesday s ruling was the latest in a winding, complex case first filed in 2005 by La Mesa resident Claude Cassirer, who died in 2010. The suit sought the return of French artist Camille Pissarro s 1897 Impressionist masterpiece, Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie, which by some estimates is worth more than $30 million.