NEW ORLEANS — After more than 80 years, a Nazi-looted Monet painting is back in the hands of its rightful owners.
It was an investigation that stretched from Europe to New York and finally to New Orleans.
The Palargi family from France and England was finally reunited with a Claude Monet painting that was plundered by the Germans during World War Two.
The pastel on paper is entitled “Bord De Mer” (Sea Side).
A lengthy investigation by the FBI determined the Palargi heirs are the rightful owners of the painting.
“Now, 84 years after the original theft, our ceremony achieves a long overdue, just and fair result,” First Assistant United States Attorney Michael Simpson said.
The painting was originally purchased by the Palargis’ grandfather at an Austrian art auction in 1936.
It was seized and sold by the Nazis and disappeared in 1941.
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Just last year, the painting resurfaced.
It was listed for sale at a Houston art gallery, prompting the FBI to act.
Dr. Kevin Schlamp and his wife Bridget Vita-Schlamp from the Lake Charles area put the Monet up for sale.
They purchased it from a French Quarter antiques gallery in 2019.
Mrs. Schlamp said she and her late husband waived their rights to the painting after learning it was looted by the Germans.
“It needed to go back to the rightful heirs,” Schlamp said. “We are without a painting. But the Jewish community has suffered much more than that.”
The exact value of the Monet is unknown,
“It’s not its value at all,” Françoise Parlagi said. “It’s the way we feel, the bond with our family, the historical background of the painting, reunited with our family’s past.”
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The Palargi granddaughters are now looking for an appropriate place to display the Monet. Françoise said she plans to have a copy made so she can hang it in her home as a reminder of her late grandfather.
The FBI investigation is ongoing. In addition to the Monet, several other pieces of artwork were stolen from the Parlagi family in 1940. A signed Paul Signac watercolor from 1903, titled "Seine in Paris (Pont de Grenelle)," was sold to the same Nazi art dealer and is still missing today.
See complete court documents below, including complaint, exhibits and judgment:
