This is a brief excerpt from the document you requested from IFAR’s Art Law & Cultural Property Database.

Case Summary

Bennigson v. Alsdorf; United States v. One Oil Painting Entitled “Femme En Blanc” By Pablo Picasso; Alsdorf v. Bennigson

Bennigson v. Alsdorf, (Cal. Super. Ct. June 16, 2003); aff’d, No. B168200 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 15, 2004); dismissed, No. S124828, (Cal. Nov. 30, 2005). 
See also United States v. One Oil Painting Entitled "Femme En Blanc" by Pablo Picasso, 362 F. Supp. 2d 1175 (C.D. Cal. 2005), and Alsdorf v. Bennigson, No. 4-cv-5953 (N.D. Ill. 2004).

Précis

In 2002, Thomas Bennigson was notified by the Art Loss Register that he was the heir to a Picasso painting that had been looted by the Nazis.  After unsuccessful negotiations with the current possessor, Marilynn Alsdorf, a

good faith purchaser, Bennigson brought suit in a California state court to recover the painting, which Alsdorf had purchased from a New York dealer in 1975.  Alsdorf eventually filed suit as well, bringing an action to quiet title in  Federal District Court in Northern Illinois. The Illinois court stayed her action pending . . . .

 






Click here to subscribe to IFAR's Art Law & Cultural Property Database to access this and other documents about U.S. and international legislation and case law concerning the acquisition, authenticity, export, ownership, and copyright of art objects.