A renowned artwork by Camille Pissarro, currently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is facing renewed examination regarding its previous ownership and sale. The painting, titled Haystacks, Morning, Eragny (1899), was sold by the art collector and department store owner Max Julius Braunthal during a tumultuous period in 1941.
According to a report by the New York Times, seven descendants of Braunthal have initiated legal proceedings in a French court. They claim that the painting was sold under pressure during the Nazi occupation. The museum asserts that Braunthal received a fair price for the piece, which illustrates several haystacks amidst a lush meadow in Eragny, the village where Pissarro resided from 1884 until his passing in 1903.
The heirs reference a recent French law established in 2023, which declares that all art transactions conducted by Jewish individuals during the Nazi regime are to be regarded as void. Braunthal sold Haystacks, Morning, Eragny for 100,000 francs to the gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel during this era.
This legislation permits the return of "stolen art, books, and cultural assets within France's inalienable public domain, including items looted beyond its borders," as reported in ARTnews.
The plaintiffs argue that the fairness of the 1941 sale price is irrelevant under the new law. However, legal experts have indicated that even if the court sides with the Braunthal heirs, this ruling would not automatically require the Met to return the painting. The heirs would still need to convince a U.S. court to enforce the French ruling unless the Met opts to appeal the decision.
Evidence presented to support the claim that Haystacks, Morning, Eragny was sold under duress includes the fact that Durand-Ruel resold the painting just two weeks later for 140,000 francs to the German collector Wolfgang Krueger.
The artwork was added to the Met's collection through Douglas Dillon, the museum's former board chair, who bequeathed it to the institution in 2003, the year he passed away. Dillon had originally acquired the piece from Knoedler Gallery in 1959.
