Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation

The case involves a Camille Pissarro painting looted by Nazis from Lilly Cassirer in 1939, when she was forced to sell it to obtain an exit visa from Germany. The artwork eventually became part of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection in Spain, owned by a state-controlled foundation. Lilly’s grandson, Claude Cassirer, discovered the painting in 2000 and sought restitution; after his death, his son David Cassirer and other heirs continued the legal battle. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on April 21, 2022, that when determining whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) bars suit under its expropriation exception, courts must apply the forum state’s choice-of-law rules, not a federal common law rule. The Court vacated the Ninth Circuit’s judgment and remanded for application of California law, significantly affecting the ability of the heirs to overcome sovereign immunity and pursue the painting’s return.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously vacated the Ninth Circuit’s decision and remanded the case. It held that courts must apply the choice-of-law rules of the forum state, not a federal common law rule, to decide the applicability of the FSIA’s expropriation exception. The case was sent back to the lower court to apply California law, keeping the restitution claim alive.

Whether the determination of a foreign state’s immunity under the FSIA’s expropriation exception should be governed by a uniform federal common law standard or by the law of the forum state, specifically regarding whether the foundation constitutes an instrumentality of a foreign state.

The ruling clarified the jurisdictional framework for Nazi-looted art claims against foreign museums in U.S. courts, making it potentially easier for claimants to overcome sovereign immunity. It reaffirmed a legal pathway for Holocaust victims and their heirs to seek recovery of stolen cultural property, drawing renewed international attention to restitution justice.