One of Pablo Picasso’s paintings is at the center of a lawsuit between a Jewish family and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The family’s heirs want the 1904 masterpiece back, which they claim was forcibly sold when they tried to escape Nazi persecution in their native Germany in 1938
One of Pablo Picasso’s paintings is at the center of a lawsuit between a Jewish family and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The heirs of Carl Adler and Rosie Yacovi want to return the masterpiece from 1904, according to which the couple sold the painting under duress when they tried to escape Nazi persecution in their homeland of Germany in 1938.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, states that Adler purchased the artwork in 1916 from Munich gallery owner Heinrich Thannhauser, but sold it well below its value to Thannhauser’s son, Justin, in 1938 for about $1,552. The lawsuit claims that Adler was desperate with the significant loss due to his family’s circumstances.
“Adler would not have sold the painting at the time and for the price he received, but because of the Nazi persecution he and his family were subjected to, and were further subjected to later,” the lawsuit states.
In the lawsuit, the family’s relatives point out that Adler was the chairman of the board of the leading leather manufacturer in Europe but things changed when “the Nazi regime in Germany crushed their lives.” In 1938, the family fled Germany, traveled through the Netherlands, France and Switzerland, and settled permanently in Argentina, the lawsuit states. .
“The Adlers needed large amounts of cash just to obtain short-term visas during their exile in Europe. Unable to work, on the run, and not knowing what the future held, the Adlers had to liquidate what they could quickly. Raise as much cash as possible,” the lawsuit states.
The heirs claim that Tannhäuser “profited” from the misfortune of German Jews. They also claim that “Tannhauser was well aware of the plight of Adler and his family, and that in the absence of Nazi persecution, Adler would never have sold the painting when he did so at such a price,” according to the suit.
Rosie Adler died in 1946 in Buenos Aires at the age of 68, while her husband Carl died at the age of 85 in 1957 during a visit to his homeland, CNN reported.
The picture remained in Thannhäuser’s art collection until his death in 1976. It was gifted, along with his other artworks, to the Guggenheim Museum in 1978.
Adler’s descendants, along with several Jewish organizations that have become plaintiffs in the class action, say in the complaint that the painting is “unlawfully in the possession” of the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation.
The family is asking for the return of the painting or compensation based on its current market value, which is estimated between $100 and $200 million, according to the lawsuit. The Guggenheim Museum told CNN in a statement that it takes “matters of compensation claims very seriously” but believes this lawsuit is “without merit.”
“The sale of the painting to Justin Tannhauser was a fair transaction between parties with a long-standing and ongoing relationship,” the museum said. They added: “The comprehensive research conducted by Guggenheim since they were first approached by a lawyer representing these plaintiffs, proves that Guggenheim is the rightful owner of the painting.”