Editorial: El País

• An appellate court in California decrees that a painting by impressionist painter Camille Pissarro belongs to the Thyssen collection and to the Spanish state.
• Despite the legal decision, the process remains controversial as the Cassirer family, first owner, had to sell the work to escape from Nazism in 1939 and plans to appeal the decision.
• Spanish law was applied, not Californian, determining that the work belongs to the Thyssen.
• Despite the legal victory, there are opinions that Spain should have voluntarily renounce the painting, after reaffirming its commitment to the Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated art.
• Thyssen's arguments are compelling; Baron Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza bought the painting in “good faith”, and the Cassirers were compensated by Germany.
• The question remains about whether it is appropriate for Spain to exhibit a work that had to be sold by its original owner, a Jewish victim of Nazism.

Conclusion: Beyond legality, the case of the painting raises a moral and ethical issue linked to the ownership of art confiscated by the Nazis, a problem that no sentence can close.

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