The Paris court on Tuesday ordered the parties involved in the fate of a work by painter Camille Pissarro, looted by the Nazis, to meet with a mediator to try to find an agreement.
In the event of a persistent disagreement, the court will rule on March 2 on the sequestration of the painting.
By then, the court is due to consider the merits of the case on January 19.
Read also: Transatlantic battle around a shepherdess from Pissarro
The canvas
La Bergère reentrant des moutons
, painted in 1886, is at the center of a legal battle between the University of Oklahoma, to which it had been bequeathed by collectors, and Léone-Noëlle Meyer, 81, adopted daughter by its former owner Raoul Meyer, looted by the Nazis in 1941. The work, one of the first pointillist paintings by Pissarro, was part of the collection of Raoul Meyer and Yvonne Bader, daughter of the founder of Galeries Lafayette.
Léone-Noëlle Meyer, sole heir to Raoul Meyer who ran Galeries Lafayette from 1944 to 1970, is fighting so that the painting, temporarily exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, can stay there.
After the war, the painting was spotted in Switzerland and sold to a New York gallery owner, David Findley, who resold it in 1957 to a couple of American collectors, Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer.
When his wife died, Aaron Weitzenhoffer bequeathed 33 impressionist paintings, including
The Shepherdess
, to the Fred Jones Jr Museum at the University of Oklahoma.
Having found traces of the work thanks to the Internet, Léone-Noëlle Meyer decided in May 2013 to initiate an action for restitution before the American courts.
After a long standoff, the American university finally agreed to an amicable settlement in February 2016. But the terms of this agreement pose serious problems, the lawyer for the old lady told AFP. Ron Soffer.
According to the French version of this agreement, the title of ownership of the work of art must ultimately revert to Léone-Noëlle Meyer, but the original version in English mentions an "act of renunciation" (quit claim) by Ms. Meyer on the board.
Read also:
Pissarro's
Picking of Peas
pits two families on each side of the Atlantic
The agreement also stipulates that the painting, after being exhibited for five years in France, begins a perpetual rotation, in phases of three years, in Okhlahoma and then in France.
According to this agreement, the painting should thus return for three years to the United States in July 2021. The agreement also provides that Léone-Noëlle Meyer bequeaths the painting during her lifetime to a French museum on condition that this museum undertakes to respect, at its expense, the principle of perpetual rotation.
The Musée d'Orsay, to which Léone-Noëlle Meyer wanted to donate the painting, refused.
"It would be to commit to unlimited financial charges in time,"
explained Mr. Soffer, who explains that Ms. Meyer was
"trapped"
by the American side.
“Perpetual bonds are prohibited by French law
,” he said.
If the painting returns to Oklahoma in July 2021, it may well stay there permanently, he fears.
On the American side, a federal judge gave Léone-Noëlle Meyer until December 28 so that she renounces her prosecutions before the French courts on pain of sanctions.