R.I. woman seeks return of portrait in Nazi-era case

[October 09, 2008]  PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A lawyer asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to overturn a decision forcing a woman to surrender a portrait to the estate of a late Jewish art dealer who fled the Nazis seven decades ago.

A judge in December ordered Maria-Luise Bissonnette, a German baroness now living in Providence, to return the painting "Girl from the Sabine Mountains" to the estate of Max Stern.

But her lawyer argued that Stern and his estate waited too long before seeking the painting.

Nazi officials forced Stern to liquidate his family's Dusseldorf art gallery in 1937 because he was Jewish. Bissonnette's stepfather bought the painting, by 19th-century artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter, at auction.

Wednesday's discussion before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals centered on narrow legal questions rather than the overarching tragedy that befell Jews in Germany. Stern was able to flee the country and became a successful art dealer in Montreal. He died in 1987.

The appeals court did not indicate when it would rule.

Bissonnette's lawyer, David Levy, argued the judge's order should be overturned. He said the estate only recently began actively seeking the painting's return, noting that it was not listed in advertisements Stern placed after the Holocaust to recoup his lost collection.

Thomas Kline, a lawyer for Stern's estate, suggested the estate had no way of knowing the whereabouts of the painting because it was in the Bissonnette family collection rather than displayed in a museum.

Stern's estate located the painting when Bissonnette tried to sell it in 2005 and sued the following year. It argues that since the auction was forced, the sale was invalid.

Although outside experts have not authenticated the painting, both sides claim it is by Winterhalter, who was famous for his portraits of European nobility. One appraiser for Bissonnette estimated the painting, which is now in a German warehouse, was worth up to $94,000.

Bissonnette's stepfather was a German doctor and member of the Nazi party. Bissonnette eventually resettled in Rhode Island and inherited the painting from her parents, but U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi last year ruled that Stern's estate was the rightful owner.

Stern lost most of the proceeds of his liquidated art holdings in Germany when Nazi authorities decided he had to pay extra taxes to obtain exit papers for his mother.

He left his estate to McGill and Concordia universities in Montreal and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The schools have continued to try to find Stern's paintings, about 400 of which remain missing.

[Associated Press; By ERIC TUCKER]

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