The legal battle that talks about art!

How about some art?

Pissarro's famous painting "The Pea Picking" is not only famous because of its author's signature, but also because it was the subject of a legal battle after its owner, named Bauer, was robbed of it by the Nazis during the Second World War.

The case was brought before the French courts when the Bauer family, who had lost track of the famous gouache until it was loaned by the Tolls, who were the owners at the time, found itself on display at the Parisian Marmottan-Monet museum in early 2017.

French justice had ordered the Americans to sell it to the Bauer family, relying on an exceptional text: the order of 21 April 1945 on the "nullity of acts of spoliation carried out by the enemy or under its control", intended to allow victims to recover their property.

However, the Toll couple appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Court of Cassation has put a stop to this case by validating the decision rendered by the Paris Court of Appeal which, in October 2018, had recalled in particular that under the 1945 Ordinance, "subsequent purchasers" of a property recognised as spoliated, "even in good faith, cannot claim to have legally become owners".

As the owners have primacy even over the bona fide possessors, the painting was able to return to the Bauer family.

When law meets art and history...

Cabinet Cécile ZAKINE supports you on questions relating to property law and matters relating to property, encroachment, possession, so that everyone's rights can be respected.

And we also invite you to discover or rediscover the collection of this extraordinary impressionist painter!