Paris Court Orders the Return of a Nazi-Looted Pissarro Sold at Sotheby’s, Annulling the 2024 Sale

A court in Paris has ordered the return of a Camille Pissarro painting that was seized by the Nazis in 1941 and sold at Sotheby’s in London in June 2024 for about £1.2 million. In its ruling of 5 November 2026, the court declared every sale of the picture since the wartime seizure null and void, including the London auction, and ordered it restored to the heirs of the Jewish collector Salomon Flavian. The painting is Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée (Fishing Dock and Duquesne Basin, Dieppe, Sunny Afternoon), a view of the harbour at Dieppe from 1902. The picture below is not that painting: it is another late Pissarro, from our print shop.

Camille Pissarro, The Louvre, Afternoon, Rainy Weather, 1900. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Not the painting in the court case, but one of the late river and harbour views Pissarro painted from high windows in the same years. Fine-art print available from the Sapiens Verbum print shop.

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Quick facts
What: A court orders the restitution of a Nazi-looted Pissarro and annuls its 2024 sale at Sotheby’s
When: Ruling of 5 November 2026; the painting was seized in Paris in 1941
Where: Tribunal de Paris (Paris court)
The work: Camille Pissarro, Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée, 1902, oil on canvas, 65.3 × 81.2 cm
Next: The restitution firm involved in the sale says it will appeal
Section: Law & Restitution

What happened

Salomon Flavian, a Romanian-born Jewish banker and collector who lived in Paris, bought the Dieppe harbour view at the Hôtel Drouot auction house in 1935. According to the account reported from the case, his collection, about forty canvases packed in crates and stored at the Westminster Foreign Bank in Paris, was seized by the German occupiers in 1941 and taken to the Jeu de Paume, the museum the Nazis used as a sorting depot for looted art. Flavian survived the war in Romania and filed a list of 35 stolen works, this painting among them. Several came back to him between 1946 and 1950, but not the Pissarro, and it was entered in the Répertoire des biens spoliés, France’s official post-war register of looted property.

The painting went on to a long life in London and New York collections and exhibitions. It was shown at the Tate in 1952 and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1966. On 25 June 2024 it was offered at Sotheby’s London, with an estimate of £1.5–2.5 million and a note that it was being sold under a settlement between the current owner and Flavian’s heirs. That settlement, arranged through the Toronto-based restitution firm Mondex Corporation, had been signed by two members of the family. Seven other heirs, represented by the lawyer Corinne Hershkovitch, said they had never been consulted, and took the case to court in Paris.

What the court decided

The sale catalogue said Flavian had parted with the painting before the war, listing the Paris dealer Paul Rosenberg by 1937 and the British collector Edward Le Bas by 1939. The court found no direct and convincing evidence of those transactions. It ruled that the painting had been taken from Flavian in 1941, declared all later sales void, “including that in London on 25 June 2024”, and ordered the work returned to his heirs wherever it may be and whoever holds it. Sotheby’s must reveal the full identity of the 2024 buyer within two months, with a penalty of €1,000 for each day of delay. The court rejected Sotheby’s argument that a French court had no jurisdiction over a sale in London, but it did not cancel the agreement between Mondex and the two heirs who had signed.

The decision is not the end of the story. Mondex says it will appeal and argues that the court did not deal with the evidence about Le Bas. Sotheby’s said it was disappointed with the restitution order, welcomed the dismissal of the claims made against the auction house itself, and is considering whether to join the appeal; it also noted that enforcing a French judgment in Britain requires a separate procedure. The buyer has not been named.

Why it matters

Under French law, the cancellation of a wartime act of spoliation carries through to every later sale, however many hands a work has passed through, which is why a picture sold in London can be reclaimed in Paris. The ruling is also a warning about settlements: an agreement signed by some heirs may not bind the others. Cases like this have become more frequent as families and researchers comb through digitised archives. Flavian’s heirs reopened their search in 2023, after spotting a photograph of the painting online.

The painting behind the story

Pissarro spent the last summers of his life painting harbours. In 1901 he stayed at Dieppe, at the Hôtel du Commerce opposite the church of Saint-Jacques. From 10 July to 30 September 1902 he came back and rented a room at 7, Arcades de la Poissonnerie, with what he called “a window overlooking the docks”. From there he painted some twenty views of the Quai Duquesne and its basins in changing light and weather. The Flavian picture belongs to that 1902 campaign. In 1903 he moved on to Le Havre, painting his last series from the Hôtel Continental. He returned to Paris that September and died on 13 November 1903, aged 73. The Louvre, Afternoon, Rainy Weather, above, shows the same method two years earlier: a view from high up across the Seine, with the bridge, the barges, the steamboats and the long facade of the Louvre dissolving in a grey, damp light. The painter dated it 1900, and it is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

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For two other recent cases of lost paintings found again, read about the Duyster recovered by the museum in Orléans and the O’Keeffe found behind the coats.

💬 Over to you: Should a sale agreed by some heirs bind the whole family? And where in the world are you reading from? Tell us in the comments.

Sources

• The Art Newspaper: French court orders restitution of Pissarro painting sold at Sotheby’s for £1.2m to heirs of Jewish banker (6 November 2026)
• Noovo / AFP: Un tableau de Pissarro spolié par les nazis rendu aux descendants d’un collectionneur juif (5 November 2026)
• The Jewish Chronicle: French court orders return of Nazi-looted painting sold at Sotheby’s (6 November 2026)
• Jewish News: French court overturns £1.2 million sale of ‘Nazi-looted’ Pissarro painting (November 2026)
• Sotheby’s: Camille Pissarro, Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée (lot 49, 25 June 2024)
• MuMa Le Havre: Pissarro dans les ports (Dieppe, Rouen, Le Havre)
• National Gallery of Art: The Louvre, Afternoon, Rainy Weather