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The Course of Restitution Never Did Run Smooth

June 24, 2009 by Marion Maneker

PissarroOne of Camille Pissarro’s last paintings was meant to be auctioned last night at Christie’s in London but was withdrawn just before the sale. The picture was the subject of a seven-decade search by one of the heirs to the Fischer publishing family who tracked the painting to a Swiss bank vault. If that were not enough of a saga, things got interesting after the painting was consigned to Christie’s, according to the Telegraph:

But at the last minute, she was met with opposition from a New Yorker named Itai Shoffman, 38, the great grandson of Samuel Fischer and the grandson his younger daughter, Hildegard. According to Shoffman, the nephew of Gisela Bermann-Fischer, Hildegard was the “black sheep of the family”, having had a daughter, his mother, out of wedlock.

“On the see-saw of life this side of the family has been more on the down side than the up,” Mr Shoffman said.

But a lawyer in Berlin specialising in inheritance cases has unearthed a letter written in 1946 that indicates that Samuel’s wife Hedwig wanted the now dead Hildegard to inherit the Pissarro if it was ever found.

According to Mr Shoffman, Ms Bermann-Fischer knew his side of the family well but had deliberately sought to exclude them from the Pissarro issue. “It feels like such a deceitful act. She’s taking away the last remaining legacy of the family and holding it for her own benefit,” he said.

His lawyers had sought a 50-50 split of the proceeds of the Pissarro sale but up until the deadline for the Christie’s auction, Ms Bermann-Fischer’s lawyers had only offered 20 per cent.

“It made a mockery of the whole journey,” he said. “I’m disappointed but in God’s hands it will work out. It’s been a rocky road and there has been so much pain.”

£1.5m Pissarro Painting Looted by Nazis Withdrawn from Auction (Telegraph)

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Filed Under: Fraud, Theft & Restitution

About Marion Maneker

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