The family of Salomon Flavian has filed a case against the auction house Sotheby's regarding the painting

Overview Debates Related claims Topics

The painting was allegedly taken at gunpoint from Salomon Flavian by the Gestapo during the Nazi occupation of Paris

The Pissarro painting is alleged to have originally belonged to Salomon Flavian, a Romanian Jewish banker in Paris

The auction catalogue for the Pissarro painting included notes about its potential history of being looted

The 2020 murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement prompted a re-examination of cultural repatriation.

The Smithsonian's ethical returns policy allows ethical considerations to override scholarship in decisions about collections.

Patricia Allen believed Glasgow Museums should not hold stolen goods.

The first director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, sold thousands of objects he excavated from Cyprus.

In 2021, the Smithsonian began developing a new ethical returns policy for its collections.

The fifth criterion was removed because thieves do not have the right to set conditions on the return of stolen property.

Glasgow Museums holds 19 artifacts identified as being from the 1897 British punitive expedition in Benin.

Glasgow Museums removed a fifth repatriation criterion concerning the future fate of the object if it were returned.

Patricia Allen identified objects for repatriation by researching museum records, some of which included extensive notes.

Patricia Allen characterized a written confession of theft as a 'confession of entitlement' by the person who took the object.

Glasgow Museums' four criteria for repatriation are requester status, community continuity, cultural importance, and acquisition history.

The British Museum has consistently refused requests from Nigeria to repatriate the Benin Bronzes.

Leasing cultural antiquities can generate revenue for countries of origin to protect their heritage sites.

A proposed amnesty program would offer leases to current holders of illicit antiquities if they acknowledge the country of origin's ownership.

Economists Tom Wilkening and Michael Kramer proposed using long-term leases to complement export bans on antiquities.

One economic proposal suggests granting excavation rights in exchange for the right to lease the discovered artifacts for a period.

The Smithsonian's policy allows for either the return of an object or the creation of a shared stewardship agreement.