By Lianne Kolirin, CNN
(CNN) — A French court has annulled a Sotheby’s sale of a Camille Pissarro painting and ordered the auction house to help the descendants of the artwork’s original Jewish owner.
“Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée” (“Fishing dock and Duquesne basin, Dieppe, sunny afternoon”) fetched £1.2 million (roughly $1.6 million) when it was sold by the London branch of the auction house in 2024 to an anonymous buyer, according to the court ruling.
Salomon Flavian, a Jewish banker of French and Romanian heritage, was featured in the provenance section of the painting’s listing on Sotheby’s website because he bought the painting in 1935, the court stated. There was little else on the listing to explain that the painting was looted during World War II, however the listing did include a single line stating: “This work is being offered for sale pursuant to a settlement between the current owner and heirs of Salomon Flavian.”
According to background in the court ruling sent to CNN, two of the Flavian descendants reached an agreement with the seller in 2024. But other descendants later brought a lawsuit over the sale, arguing that they had not been party to that agreement.
But last week a French court ruled in favor of those descendants.
Salomon Flavian, a Jewish banker of French and Romanian heritage, bought the 1902 landscape in 1935, according to the ruling. When war broke out in September 1939, he arranged for the painting and dozens of others to be stored in crates at the Westminster Foreign Bank in Paris. Those crates, with the Pissarro painting inside, were seized by the Nazis in 1941, the ruling said.
After the war, Flavian — who survived — was reunited with some of his looted artwork, but some works, including the Pissarro, were never restituted to the family, according to the ruling.
Reaching its judgment on November 5, the Paris Judicial Court annulled the sale and ordered Sotheby’s to “disclose the full identity of the buyer of the work” within two months in order to enable its return to the family. Furthermore, it said that if Sotheby’s does not disclose the buyer’s identity within the two-month period it will be liable to pay a 1,000 euro ($1,115) penalty for every additional day that it fails to do so.
The court also ruled against the Toronto-based Mondex Corporation, a firm specializing in the return of Nazi-looted art. According to background in the court ruling sent to CNN, Mondex assisted with the agreement reached between the painting’s seller and two of the Flavian descendants.
The court ruled against Mondex for its role in the agreement reached between Sotheby’s, the seller and the two Flavian descendants it was representing. It was ordered to pay the descendants 10,000 euros (around $11,000).
Mondex Corporation maintains the painting was not looted and that British art collector Edward Le Bas was the owner from 1939 to the early 1950s. In a statement sent to CNN, it said: “We understand that the court’s decision was lacking a detailed analysis of the provenance evidence provided and as such warrants an appeal so that all of the relevant facts can be considered thoroughly.”
Following the ruling, the Flavian descendants who brought the case issued a statement through the law firm representing them, Cabinet Corinne Hershkovitch. They said: “The heirs of Salomon Flavian are pleased that the Paris Court of Justice has recognized the spoliation of the claimed Pissarro painting and, through this historic ruling, has restored the memory and honor of their father and grandfather. “
In a statement sent to CNN Friday, Sotheby’s said: “While we respect its judgment regarding the restitution of Pissarro’s Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, we are disappointed by this aspect of the decision. The history of the artwork is complex. We fully recognise the profound losses suffered by the Flavian family during the Nazi era and, from the outset, have approached this matter responsibly and with the care and respect it deserves.”
Sotheby’s went on to say: “There is a procedural process that will need to be followed in order for this aspect of the decision to be enforced in the UK, and we are reviewing the judgment in detail.”
The action was taken against the UK arm of Sotheby’s by a French court because the spoliation of Flavian’s private collection had occurred in Nazi-occupied Paris.
Nans Méger is a partner at Cabinet Corinne Hershkovitch, the law firm that represents the Flavian heirs. He told CNN: “There are established legal procedures for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, and we are confident in our ability to pursue them successfully.”
“We will take all necessary legal steps to protect our clients’ interests and secure the restitution of the painting, just as we have done consistently since the proceedings began in 2024.”
He added: “It would also be important to highlight that the judgment is based on the French Ordinance of 21 April 1945, which itself stems from the 1943 Inter-Allied Declaration of London, and provides for the nullity of transactions involving property looted during the Nazi Occupation.”
“The Court also expressly referred to the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, endorsed by 44 countries, which, although non-binding, established an international framework for addressing Nazi-era art looting and seeking just and fair solutions.”
Despite it being more than 80 years since the end of World War II, the issue of looted art remains a hot topic. The Nazi regime orchestrated the largest art theft in world history between 1933 and 1945, seizing more than 650,000 works of art across Europe from Jewish families, collectors and museums, according to the Center for Art Law.
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