'FUHRER' OVER ART AUCTION

[Ian David]

By JANON FISHER

February 11, 2007 -- A valuable Impressionist painting lost in the Nazi conquest of France has resurfaced on the auction block at Sotheby's - but descendants of the owners may have missed the chance to get it back.

Peter Bernett, of Belmont, Mass., is suing for ownership of "Bateux en reparation a Saint Mammes" by 19th century Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley, claiming his parents were forced to leave the painting behind just before the invasion.

Robert Stone and Gary Stone, who inherited the painting from their parents' estate in 1990, learned the German government paid Bernett's family 50 percent of the artwork's value in 1962 - and claim the Bernetts no longer have any claim to the piece.

"This is not a valid World War II restitution claim," said Thaddeus Stauber, the Stones' lawyer. "The painting rightfully belongs to the Stones."

Neither side is disputing that Bernett's grandparents bought the painting in 1928 from the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. All sides agree the couple fled Paris in 1940 after being interned in French concentration camps.

More:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02112007/news/worldnews/fuhrer_over_art_auction_worldnews_janon_fisher.htm

[devilgrrl]

1. Some info about Sisley and a few of his paintings.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/sisley/