French court orders Sotheby's to undo sale of Nazi-looted Pissarro and return it to Jewish heirs

A French court has ordered Sotheby's to cancel the sale of Camille Pissarro's 1902 landscape "Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne" and return it to descendants of French Jewish banker Salomon Flavian, whose collection the Nazis seized in 1941, JNS reports.

The painting sold at Sotheby's London on June 25, 2024, for about $1.5 million. The court gave Sotheby's two months to identify the buyer, with a fine of about €1,000 a day after that. Lawyers for seven Flavian descendants argued the auction-page "settlement" covered only two relatives and that evidence shows the work was among the looted pieces — despite Sotheby's claim it had been acquired before the seizure via dealer Paul Rosenberg.

Sotheby's said it respects the restitution ruling but is "disappointed" by that aspect of the decision. The case is another reminder that Nazi-looted art is still turning up on the open market eight decades later.