An early work by Impressionist master Claude Monet, presumed lost during World War II, was returned to the descendants of its rightful owner in New Orleans last week.
Descendants Helen Lowe and Françoise Paragi, and Anne Weber, co-chair of the European Looted Art Commission, spoke about their experiences in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
The artwork “Bor de Mer'', which dates back to 1865, depicts the Normandy coast near Le Havre, known as Sainte-Address, which was liberated during the Allied D-Day invasion in 1944. The painting could be worth up to $700,000. to Smithsonian Magazine.
“There is no doubt that this Monet is valuable, but its true value lies in what it represents to the Paraj family,” James Dennehy, FBI deputy director in charge of New York City, said after the work was returned to the family. ,” it said in a statement. “It's a connection to their history, to their loved ones, to a legacy that was almost erased. The emotion associated with reclaiming something so cruelly taken away is something so priceless that money can't measure it. is.”
Monet looted by Nazis and missing for more than 80 years returns to heirs of original owner in New Orleans: FBI
Monet's early work, “Bor de Mer,'' circa 1865, depicts a beach near Le Havre, Normandy, France. (Kat Ramirez, Fox News Digital)
This painting was acquired by Adalberto “Bella” Parlaghi in 1936 during an auction in Vienna, Austria. Ethnically Jewish, he and his wife Hilda had to suddenly flee Vienna in 1938 after the Anschluss, or “Union,” with Nazi Germany.
The “Bor de Mer” was one of the countless works of art that the Palagi family left behind when they became refugees. The Palraj family eventually moved to London and in 1938 stored their antiques and art, including Monet, in shipping containers.
“On their trip to London, they asked a transport company in Vienna to pack up everything in their apartment. They literally shut the door and left, so they left everything, including artwork. I asked him to pack them up. We had to store them in a warehouse and then ship them to them in London,” Webber told FOX News Digital.
“But the Nazis had other ideas, and what they did was they seized that property, confiscated it in 1940, and put it up for sale in 1941 and 1942,” she said. Ta.
Adalbert Parlage never gave up his efforts and hopes to recover the “Bor de Mer” and countless other works of art looted by the German Gestapo. He passed away in 1981.
”[Parlagi] I wrote a letter to the transport company in Vienna. He wrote this to the Austrian government. He wrote a letter to the Austrian Federal Heritage Office. He asked them all for help in determining what happened to all his belongings. The shipping company told him they had been confiscated and auctioned off,” Weber said.
Anne Webber is exhibited alongside Claude Monet's “Bor de Mer,'' and her research contributed to the work's recovery by the European Commission for Looted Art. (Kat Ramirez, Fox News Digital)
“He also tried to obtain compensation as there was a compensation procedure in place after the war, but both Germany and Austria refused to compensate him on the grounds that they did not know where his artwork was located.German Empire “There is no evidence of what happened to Monet,” Webber said. “These were all typical experiences of people after the war.”
After Adalbert's death in 1981, his son Franz continued his father's legacy and recovered the lost works of art. Franz attended the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art, where 44 governments convened in Washington, D.C., to discuss the recovery of cultural works looted by the Nazis.
Franz Parlage passed away in 2012 without recovering the “Bor de Mer'' or other valuable works that belonged to his father.
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In 2014, Lou and Françoise Parradi, granddaughters of Adalbert Parradi, approached the European Commission for Looted Art to find Monet's work. Weber compiled decades of research from across Europe into the “Bor de Mer” and countless other works of art that belonged to Adalbert.
In 2021, the Looted Art Commission submitted detailed findings to the FBI's Art Crimes Team.
“We always produce a very comprehensive and detailed dossier of information and documents and present all of our evidence. [Parlagi] What the family owned, when they acquired the artwork, where they got it, evidence of loss, evidence of sale by the Nazis, evidence of confiscation. We have seizure records,” Weber said. “So we put together all the evidence that existed. And at that point, we contacted the FBI.”
The Monet painting was discovered with the Schlump family in 2023 by the FBI in New Orleans after being purchased from New Orleans art dealer MS Rau. The late Dr. Kevin Schlumpf and his surviving wife Bridget Vita told Fox News Digital that they were “shocked” to learn the true source of the piece.
Adalbert “Bella” Parlage's granddaughters express their gratitude and admiration after receiving their grandfather Monet's pastel-on-paper painting “Bor de Mer” in New Orleans on October 9th. . (Kat Ramirez, Fox News Digital)
According to the FBI, “The Schlumpfs voluntarily turned over the artwork and relinquished ownership of it. The Schlumpf family's cooperation was key to the successful resolution of this case, and their integrity in ensuring the return of the pastel was invaluable.” worthy of praise.”
In May 2024, a judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana ruled that Bor de Mer legally belonged to Lou Paragi and Françoise Paragi, with the power of attorney going to Webber.
On October 9, the Schlump and Parlaghi families met in person at the FBI's New Orleans field office as the “Bor de Mer” was officially repatriated to Adalberto Parlaghi's descendants.
The “Bor de Mer'', which was thought to have been lost when the Nazis plundered Monet's works during World War II, will be exhibited to the public for the first time. (Kat Ramirez, Fox News Digital)
“We are proud to support the work of the Art Crimes Team, especially in this case,” Special Agent Lionel Marcil of the FBI's New Orleans Division said in a release. “While no excuse can be made for the hateful and egregious acts of the past, we are most grateful to the Schlumpf family for playing their part in righting this wrong. To do so, we need and appreciate the continued support of the public and the arts community as a whole.'' We hope to see more success stories like this in the future. ”
Mr Weber said he was proud of the work the team had accomplished over several decades and across multiple continents, but called for the world to pay attention to the countless cultural treasures lost in World War II. Ta.
“As humans, it's very important that we all have rules by which to behave,” she said. “We have a human rights treaty. We say, you know, property belongs to the people who own it and they have an equal right to own it. And they were written into treaties set by Americans and Americans,” which Britain set up after the war, and we saw it at the Nuremberg War Trials.
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“These were crimes against humanity. So these are very important today, whether you're in the UK or America, whether you or your family live in Switzerland or Spain, wherever you are. This is very, very important. This is it. Everything is very important today, and never more important than in the past. ”
