A Claude Monet pastel painting, Bord de Mer, stolen by the Nazis during World War II, was returned to the descendants of its original owners on Wednesday in New Orleans. The artwork, valued at over $500,000 by a Houston gallery, had gone missing for decades before resurfacing with a Louisiana art dealer.
The original owners, Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi of Austria, acquired the painting in 1936 to display in their home. However, two years later, they were forced to flee the Nazis, leaving their belongings, including the Monet, in a Vienna warehouse. Unfortunately, the German Gestapo seized the contents of the warehouse, and the painting was auctioned off to a Nazi art dealer in 1941.
The Monet resurfaced more than 70 years later during a 2016 impressionism exhibition in France, eventually being sold to a couple in Washington state. After they listed it for sale in Houston, they agreed to surrender the painting to the FBI last year upon discovering its looted history.
The FBI has since worked to return the artwork to the Parlagi family, culminating in the handoff this week. The family continues to seek other stolen pieces, including a signed Paul Signac watercolor from 1903, also sold to the same Nazi dealer as the Monet.
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