Madrid museum wants case closed

A Madrid museum said Friday it would appeal a U.S. court decision to keep open a lawsuit seeking the return of a disputed Impressionist masterpiece allegedly stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family during World War II.

The case involves ownership of “Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie,” a Parisian street scene painted by Camille Pissarro in 1897, which is estimated to be worth $20 million.

On Aug. 30, a court in Los Angeles rejected a motion by the Spanish government to dismiss a lawsuit by Claude Cassirer of San Diego, who says his family is the rightful owner. Cassirer, 85, says his grandmother was forced to sell the painting in 1939 for just $360 as a precondition of her fleeing Germany.

The painting has been on display at Madrid’s state-owned Thyssen-Bornemisza museum since 1993, when the Spanish government paid $250 million to buy the Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen’s collection.

“We are the owners of this painting,” Carlos Fernandez de Henestrosa, managing director of the Thyssen Foundation, said in a telephone interview. “We have documents that prove that the Baron Thyssen was the legitimate buyer in 1976. It is ours until proven otherwise.”