Washington Principles: What's the Point?

On March 4, 2024 the Monuments Men and Women Foundation submitted an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the Cassirer heirs in their decades-long fight to recover a painting that the Courts and the Defendant, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, both agree was looted by the Nazis.

What’s the point of having the Washington Principles if museums are simply going to ignore them?

Photos: the Camille Pissarro painting hanging in the Berlin apartment of Lilly Cassirer (ca. 1930). Photo courtesy of David Cassirer via Artnet.

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BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE MONUMENTS MEN AND WOMEN FOUNDATION IN SUPPORT OF PETITION FOR REHEARING AND REHEARING EN BANC

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On February 4, 2025, the Foundation reiterated its support to the Cassirer claim with an amicus brief before the Supreme Court. Above all, the Foundation supports the ideals that the Monuments Men and Women fought for in World War II, including the rule of law and respect for private property. As amicus curiae, the Monuments Men and Women Foundation carefully evaluates facts in light of the applicable treaties governing land war setting aside agendas to stand on the side of justice, no matter how unlikely the odds. In this case the facts remain: Lilly Cassirer owned this painting by Pissarro before World War II. Had she not been a Jewish woman living in Nazi Germany, she would have likely still owned it after World War II.

On March 10, 2025, the Supreme Court has granted the petition for certiorari in the Cassirer case, in which the Foundation submitted an amicus brief. The previous decision has been vacated, and the case will now go back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to be reconsidered in light of California's new law that helps its residents recover personal property, including works of art, lost due to political persecution.