Stay updated with breaking news from Ron Soffer. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Léone Meyer, a Holocaust survivor whose parents' Camille Pissarro was looted by Nazis, has given up in her quest for the work's restitution.
Léone Meyer in 2015. Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images. During the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazis stole the French Impressionist painting from the bank where the Meyer family was storing it when they fled the country. Meyer’s biological family was killed at Auschwitz, but the now 81-year-old was adopted by Holocaust survivor Raoul Meyer, who attempted to recover his looted collection. Unfortunately, the theft occurred in 1941, and by the time he found the Pissarro painting, in Geneva in 1951, Swiss courts had dismissed his case because the statute of l...
Editor’s note: The Daily’s interview with Léone Meyer was conducted in French, with the assistance of OU French Professor Peyton Vann. All quotes from Meyer and her attorney were translated from the French transcript of the interview unless stated otherwise.  Holocaust survivor and French businesswoman Léone Meyer spoke in French for the duration of her hour-long interview with The Daily. Separated by seven hours and over 4,000 miles, OU French professor Peyton Vann translated as Meyer shared the story behind her ongoing legal struggle with OU over the ownership of âÂ...
Article content Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro’s tiny La Bergère Rentrant des Moutons (Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep) has for years been the subject of a three-way tug of war between a museum in France, a university in Oklahoma and the daughter of its original Jewish owners. When they fled France during the Second World War, wealthy Parisians Raoul and Yvonne Meyer entrusted their art to their bank, but in 1941 Nazi officers managed to loot the lot. Upon returning to Europe in 1945, Raoul was able to recover much of his vast collection, Artnet.com says. However, by the time he trac...
BBC News By Lucy Williamson image captionParis under occupation: Nazi Germany controlled the French capital from June 1940 Eighty years ago, Nazi officers entered a local bank in a sleepy corner of south-west France, and raided a safe deposit box there. Hidden inside, they found a stack of artworks, including a painting by Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, showing a shepherdess bathed in warm light greeting her flock. image copyrightPatrice Schmidt/Musée d'Orsay The painting had been hidden there by a Jewish couple, Raoul and Yvonne Meyer, the heirs of famous French department store Gal...