The Jewish Community of Madrid and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain filed an amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Cassirer family, who are demanding that the Thyssen Museum return the painting Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain by Camille Pissarro, which was looted by the Nazis.
In January 2024, applying Spanish substantive law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (California) ruled that the Spanish state is the rightful owner of the painting.
The heirs of Lilly Cassirer, the original owner of the artwork, requested a full review of the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the court denied reconsideration, despite a strong dissenting opinion from one of the judges. The Cassirer family then appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2022, the Prado Museum launched an initiative to identify artworks looted during the Spanish Civil War and return them to their rightful owners. Just last year, paintings by Vicente López Portaña and Frans Pourbus the Younger—illegally seized 85 years ago—were returned to the great-great-grandson of their original owner.
In June 2024, the Ministry of Culture published a list of more than 5,000 artworks stolen by the Franco regime to facilitate the recovery of family heirlooms, including paintings, sculptures, and jewelry.
These efforts, the Jewish community argues in its submission to the U.S. Supreme Court, starkly contrast with the Spanish government’s support for the Thyssen Foundation in retaining Pissarro’s painting.
Camille Pissarro painted Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain in 1897. Since 1993, it has been on display at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid.
During the 1930s, the painting belonged to Lilly Cassirer and her husband, who were forced to sell it for just $360 in exchange for an exit visa to flee Nazi Germany and settle in England.
In 1976, Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza purchased the painting from a New York gallery owner for $275,000—an artwork now estimated to be worth over $20 million. The grandchildren of the Jewish couple have been fighting ever since to reclaim it.
