This Jewish Heir Wants Picasso Painting Returned-Or $150m

The heir of a German-Jewish collector is demanding that the Guggenheim Museum return to them Picasso’s Woman Ironing (1904) or payment worth $150 Million.

They are alleging that the painting was “sold unfairly”, as a lawsuit entered on January 20, 2023, at the Manhattan Supreme Court indicates.

The original owner of Woman Ironing, Karl Adler, was compelled in 1938 to sell the painting to Justin Thannhauser for $1,552, or about $32,000 in today’s value in a bid to escape the Nazi persecution.

The painting in dispute: Pablo Picasso, Woman Ironing (La repasseuse) (1904). © 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Kristopher McKay.

According to a spokesperson from the Guggenheim, “there is no evidence that Karl Adler or his three children, now deceased, ever viewed the sale as unfair or considered Thannhauser a bad‐faith actor, either at the time of the transaction or at any time since.”

The Guggenheim obviously isn’t backing down. They intend to keep both the art and the dough. Will be interesting to watch.

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