LOS ANGELES, CA.- The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has ruled in favor of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation and the Kingdom of Spain in an artwork dispute that has spanned a decade.

In its June 4th Order granting the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation's motion for summary judgment‎, the U.S. District Court confirmed that the Foundation is the rightful owner of the oil painting by Camille Pissarro, Rue Saint-Honore, après-midi, effet de pluie (1897). The Foundation oversees the Museo Thyssen-Bornemizsa (Museum), one of the three major museums in Madrid, Spain. The Foundation won this case on successful merits from its team of attorneys Thaddeus J. Stauber and Sarah E. André of Nixon Peabody LLP in Los Angeles, CA, Pedro Alemán Laín and Javier Martínez Bavière of Pedro Alemán Abogados in Madrid, Spain, with assistance from international provenance research and legal team members Laurie Stein, Lynn Nicholas, Dr. Wolfgang Ernst, Professor Alfonso-Luis Calvo Caravaca, Professor Mariano Yzquierdo Tolsada, and Ms. Adriana de Buerba.

This case has been reviewed twice by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit – including review by the en banc court – and was referred by the U.S. Supreme Court to the U.S. Solicitor General, for his views in response to the Foundation’s petition for a writ of certiorari. At all stages, this action has dealt with issues of first impression and/or constitutional challenges. The parties submitted cross-motions for summary judgment in March. In the District Court ruling, the court held that Spanish law should be applied to the facts and that, under Spanish law, the Foundation is the owner of the painting. The court also held that application of a recently amended statute of limitations violated the Foundation’s due process rights.

The Pissarro painting was acquired by Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza in good faith in 1976, and later by the Foundation in 1993 when the Baron’s collection came to Spain. The Foundation’s collection has an extensive worldwide public exhibition and publication history and has often been exhibited in museums in Australia, Japan, England, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, the United States, and Spain. The painting (and its provenance) has been regularly published in exhibition catalogues and scholarly studies of Pissarro and of Impressionist art. It has been on continuous public display for years in Madrid at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza where it can be seen today.