Jewish heirs want Picasso sold to escape Nazis

One of Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period paintings is at the center of a lawsuit between a Jewish family and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Karl Adler and Rosi Jacobi’s heirs want the artist’s 1904 masterpiece “Woman Ironing (La repasseuse)” repatriated, which they say the couple sold under duress as they tried to escape Nazi persecution in their homeland , Germany, in 1938.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday, alleges Adler acquired the artwork in 1916 from Munich gallery owner Heinrich Thannhauser but sold it well below value to Thannhauser’s son Justin in 1938, for approximately $1,552.

The suit alleges that Adler, in despair, suffered a substantial loss due to his family’s circumstances.

“Adler would not have disposed of the painting at the time and for the price it did, but because of the Nazi persecution to which he and his family were and could continue to be subjected”, says the document.

In the suit, the relatives claim that Adler was chairman of the board of directors of Europe’s leading leather manufacturer, but things changed when the “Nazi regime in Germany destroyed their lives”.

In 1938, the family fled Germany, traveling through the Netherlands, France and Switzerland before settling permanently in Argentina, the lawsuit claims.

“The Adlers needed large sums of money just to obtain short-term visas during their exile in Europe. Unable to work, on the run and not knowing what the future held, the Adlers had to liquidate what they could to quickly raise as much cash as possible,” the lawsuit states.

The heirs allege that Thannhauser was “profiting” from the misfortune of German Jews. They also allege that “Thannhauser was well aware of the plight of Adler and his family, and that, without Nazi persecution, Adler would never have sold the painting when he did for such a price,” according to the lawsuit.

Rosi Adler died in 1946, in Buenos Aires, aged 68, and her husband, Karl, died aged 85 in 1957, during a visit to his homeland.

“Woman Ironing” remained in Thannhauser’s art collection until his death in 1976. The painting was presented, along with the rest of his collection, to the Guggenheim in 1978.

Adler’s descendants, along with several nonprofits and Jewish organizations named as plaintiffs in the class action, say in the lawsuit that the painting is “in improper possession” of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

The family is seeking the painting’s return or compensation commensurate with its current market value, estimated at between $100 million and $200 million, according to the lawsuit.

The Guggenheim Museum told CNN in a statement that it takes “issues of provenance and restitution claims extremely seriously” but believes this lawsuit is “without merit”.

“The sale of the painting by Karl Adler to Justin Thannhauser was a fair transaction between parties with a lasting and ongoing relationship,” the museum said.

He added: “The extensive research conducted by the Guggenheim since the first contact made by a lawyer representing these claimants demonstrates that the Guggenheim is the rightful owner of the painting.”