Rare Painting Of Missing Monetary Work Stolen By Nazi Returns To Its Owner's Family

Monet's ever missing Bord de Mer painting (Source: US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana)

JAKARTA - Chico Monet's pastel painting stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families during World War II, then disappeared for decades and appeared in the hands of an art trader in Louisiana, United States, returned to descendants of its original owner in New Orleans, earlier this month.

"Bord de Mer" is one of Monet's early works and is valued at more than US$500,000 by the Houston gallery that auctioned it.

The painting had been missing for decades, before the FBI began investigating the pastel painting when the painting was listed for sale.

The original owner, a Jewish couple in Austria named Adabert and Hilda Parlagi, bought the painting in 1936 to be hung in their homes.

Two years later, US officials said, the Parlagi family was forced to flee the Nazis. They left all their belongings, including the Monet painting, in the warehouse of the shipping company Vienna and intended to send it themselves or pick it up later.

Before they were able to regain the painting, Germany confiscated everything Pargis had hidden in the warehouse, US officials said.

The Monet painting was then purchased at auction by a Nazi art trader and disappeared in 1941.

More than 70 years later, the painting reappeared at a 2016 impressive exhibition in France. A New Orleans-based antique trader bought it and sold it to a husband and wife in Washington State.

The couple later registered it for sale in Houston, but agreed to hand it over to the FBI last year after learning of its "history of looting," the bureau said.

Since then, the FBI has been trying to return the Monet painting to Parlagi's granddaughter. One of them lives in France and the other in Spain. The handover was made earlier this month.

"Our grandfather is definitely very happy to know that this Monet painting has been returned after all his efforts over the years," the grandson said in a statement released by the Arts Looting Commission in Europe.

"This is a very touching and extraordinary day for us, a day we never expected would happen," he added.

In addition to the Monet painting, the Parlagi Family is still looking for several other works of art stolen by the Nazis, including Paul Signac's signature water paint from 1903 which was sold to the same Nazi art trader.