California law could help reunite family with painting stolen during World War II
A painting worth tens of millions of dollars was stolen by the Nazis during World War II and the fight to get it back recently made it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A new California law could help reunite the painting with a family desperate to get it back.
Lilly Cassirer, a German Jew, had to pay a steep price to get her family out of Germany before World War II.
"They paid enormous flight taxes, it was called at the time, and they had to give up the Pissaro to get exit visas," said David Cassirer, Lilly's great-grandson.
The Camille Pissarro's "Rue Saint-Honore in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain" was stolen by the Nazis. Today, it's hanging in a museum in Madrid, Spain, and is potentially worth tens of millions of dollars.
David is now leading the fight to get it back.
"The worst of it is my immediate family has all passed away," David said.
"This is stolen property that the Kingdom of Spain refuses to give back to its rightful owners," said Sam Dubbin, David's lawyer.
Dubbin said for years the question was, do you use Spanish law or American law for this case?
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new state law last year that protects the rightful heirs of art that was lost during the Holocaust.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California law should be taken into consideration when it comes to the Pissaro painting.
"The California legislature reaffirmed a rule and policy of the state of California that stolen art should be returned to their rightful owners," Dubbin said. "According to Congress, at least 100,000 paintings that were looted from Jews in the Holocaust remain in the wrong hands."
There's no telling what happens next or how long this will all take but it's a step forward in a fight that's now taken this family decades.
"It adds to the burden of losing your family and they never lived to see, my father never lived to see this painting restored, this legacy of the family, to us," David said.
CBS13 reached out to the lawyer representing the museum in this case but did not get a response.
