A French court has annulled a Sotheby’s sale of a Camille Pissarro painting and ordered the auction house to help the descendants of the artwork’s original Jewish owner.
“Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée” (“Fishing dock and Duquesne basin, Dieppe, sunny afternoon”) fetched £1.2 million (roughly $1.6 million) when it was sold by the London branch of the auction house in 2024 to an anonymous buyer, according to the court ruling.
Salomon Flavian, a Jewish banker of French and Romanian heritage, was featured in the provenance section of the painting’s listing on Sotheby’s website because he bought the painting in 1935, the court stated. There was little else on the listing to explain that the painting was looted during World War II, however the listing did include a single line stating: “This work is being offered for sale pursuant to a settlement between the current owner and heirs of Salomon Flavian.”
