Paris court orders Sotheby's to return Nazi-looted Pissarro painting to Flavian heirs

A 1941 seizure and a 2026 ruling

A Paris court on Thursday, 5 November 2026, ordered the return of a Camille Pissarro canvas, allegedly seized by the Nazis during the Second World War, to the descendants of Salomon Flavian, a Jewish banker and art collector whose collection was seized in Paris in 1941. The 1902 painting, titled Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée (Fishing dock and Duquesne basin, Dieppe, sunny afternoon), shows the port city in western France and is also catalogued as Le port de Dieppe. French and Romanian reports say Flavian bought it in 1935, and it was long out of circulation until it reappeared at a Sotheby's auction in London on 25 June 2024. The court declared every sale of the work since its seizure void, including the London sale, and ordered it returned wherever it is and whoever holds it.

The sale and the consent dispute

Sotheby's London sold the painting in 2024 for £1.2 million, which ARTnews put at $1.5 million at the time, while a figure of 1.4 million euros was also reported. The auction house described the work as offered under a settlement between the current owner and the heirs of Salomon Flavian. In court, Sotheby's lawyers argued that the heirs had given their consent through Mondex Corporation, a firm that specialises in recovering art and other assets looted during the war. Seven plaintiffs told the court in September that only two relatives, Gilles and Nicholas Flavian, had signed that agreement and that the rest of the family had not been consulted.

What the court decided

The court found that the Flavian family had shown that Salomon Flavian owned the painting, that the Germans had confiscated it, and that he had taken steps to recover his assets after the war. It ordered Sotheby's to tell the claimants the identity of the buyer at the 2024 sale within two months, and after that deadline to pay a fine of €1,000 for each day of delay. The court's communiqué said Sotheby's silence was preventing the heirs from pursuing restitution against the 2024 buyer and ran against the main aim of a 21 April 1945 ordinance on in-kind restitution of confiscated property to victims or their heirs. The judgment applies immediately, even if the parties appeal.

Mondex and the appeal

Mondex consultant James Palmer told ARTnews by email that an appeal would be filed "forthwith". He argued that the archives of the dealer Paul Rosenberg and the 1939 Pissarro catalogue raisonné both identify British artist and collector Edward Le Bas as the owner from 1939 to the early 1950s. On that reading, the painting could not have been taken from Flavian in the 1940s. Palmer also pointed to the absence of a formal framework in France.

“Of great importance is the fact that France currently lacks a formal restitution framework, which disadvantages both the state and claimants.”

The two-month deadline for naming the buyer and the planned appeal now set the next steps in a case that has run since the heirs' September action.