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http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/70-years-later-Nazi-looted-Pissarro-painting-to-return-to-Jewish-owners-513676

70 YEARS LATER, NAZI-LOOTED PISSARRO PAINTING TO RETURN TO JEWISH OWNERS
BY EYTAN HALON NOVEMBER 8, 2017 11:21

Earlier this year, the original collector's descendants saw an opportunity to reclaim the lost piece.

A famous painting by impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, seized by France's pro-Nazi Vichy Regime over 70 years ago, will be returned to the family of its original Jewish owner after a Parisian court ruled in their favor on Tuesday.

"La Cueillette des Pois" ("Picking Peas") was one of over 90 pieces of art confiscated by the Vichy Regime in 1943 from the art collection of French businessman Simon Bauer.

Although Bauer avoided deportation during World War II due to a strike by railway workers, he only managed to recover a small number of the pieces by the time of his death, four years later.

Earlier this year, the collector's descendants saw an opportunity to reclaim the lost piece, painted in 1887, after learning that it had been lent to the Marmottan museum in Paris by its current owners, Bruce and Robbi Toll, for a Pissarro exhibition.

The family demanded the painting's return, relying on an April 1945 ordinance on the invalidity of dispossessed property. In May, a French court ordered the painting to be impounded pending a final ruling on ownership.

The Tolls purchased the painting in 1995 for $800,000 at Christie's in New York and claim that they bought it in good faith with no knowledge of its history.

The Bauer family rejected the couple's claim of ignorance, stating that they were "specialists" and that the painting was registered as looted.

"This is a case full of emotion and drama, but Mr Toll is not responsible for the crimes carried out by the Vichy Regime. He bought it at Christie's," said the Toll couple's lawyer, adding that Bauer's descendants have received "fair" compensation from the state for their wartime losses.

According to the 2009 Holocaust Era Assets Conference, approximately 100,000 artworks out of 650,000 seized by the Vichy Regime are yet to be returned to their original owners.

Обновление.
А вот что в Берне 02.11.2017 – 04.03.2018 - накопленное Гурлиттом, наконец, выставляют (Simultaneously at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn
Gurlitt: Status Report. Nazi Art Theft and its ConsequencesNovember 3, 2017 – March 11, 2018):

https://www.kunstmuseumbern.ch/en/service/media/media-releases-2017/01-11-17-gurlitt-status-report-1821.html
https://www.kunstmuseumbern.ch/service/medien/medienmitteilungen-2017/15-02-17-gurlitt-ausstellungen-1687.html

GURLITT: STATUS REPORT «DEGENERATE ART» – CONFISCATED AND SOLD

The Kunstmuseum Bern opens the exhibition Gurlitt: Status Report «Degenerate Art» – confiscated and sold. After Cornelius Gurlitt (1932–2014) unexpectedly made the Kunstmuseum Bern his sole heir in his last will and testament in 2014, the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn are now, for the first time, contemporaneously presenting under the title Gurlitt: Status Report a selection from this large estate to the public.

Under the title «Degenerate Art» – confiscated and sold, the focus of the exhibition in Bern is on the modern art outlawed by the National Socialists, while Bonn concentrates on Nazi Art Theft and its Consequences.

The Kunstmuseum Bern is showing some 160 works, most of which were confiscated from German collections during the «Degenerate Art» operation in 1937 and 1938. These holdings mostly consist of works on paper, featuring outstanding works of Expressionism, Constructivism and Verism. The artists represented include artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc and Otto Dix.
At the same time the exhibition examines the political processes which led to the modern art as being defamed as «degenerate», and consequently destroyed and sold. Particular attention is paid to the fate of artists who found themselves facing kangaroo courts and persecution.
The crucial historical events are placed in a direct relationship with the historical figure of Hildebrand Gurlitt (Cornelius’ father), with all his contradictions: documents and papers from his estate tell us about the development of the museum director and advocate of modern art into one of the most important art dealers in the «Third Reich».
The exhibition also gives us, through the Studio Provenance Research, the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the field of provenance research which has come into prominence with the «Gurlitt art trove.

In the exhibition, the SRF-film documentary «Gurlitts Schatten» is shown permanently.

Team of curators
Dr. Nina Zimmer, Director, Kunstmuseum Bern – Zentrum Paul Klee
Dr. Matthias Frehner, Director of Collections, Kunstmuseum Bern – Zentrum Paul Klee
Dr. Nikola Doll, Head of Provenance Research, Kunstmuseum Bern
Prof. (em.) Dr. Georg Kreis, Historian, Universität Basel

The Bonn exhibition will be shown at the Kunstmuseum Bern from April 13th till July 1st 2018.