“The emotions tied to reclaiming something taken so brutally can’t be measured in dollars—it’s priceless,” said James Dennehy, assistant director in charge of the FBI in New York City, after the organisation helped bring back Nazi-looted Monet painting after 80 years.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Art Crime Team, the New York and New Orleans Field Offices, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana Wednesday announced the repatriation of a Claude Monet pastel on paper, “Bord de Mer.”

“The emotions tied to reclaiming something taken so brutally can’t be measured in dollars—it’s priceless.”

Discover how the #FBI helped return a Nazi-Looted Monet, missing for over 80 years, to the heirs of original owners: https://t.co/wL66ULxImd pic.twitter.com/zZIzOtHcWq

— FBI (@FBI) October 9, 2024

The painting, created around 1865, was purchased by the Parlagi family at an Austrian art auction in 1936. A few years later, in 1940, during World War II, the pastel was seized by Gestapo, the Nazis’ secret police force.

Eventually, the Monet was purchased at an auction by a Nazi art dealer and disappeared in 1941.

The Parlagi family has spent decades looking for the painting.

Also Read: After Mona Lisa, Climate Protesters Throw Soup at Monet Painting

In 2023, the FBI got a lead when the artwork was listed for sale at a Houston art gallery. The team contacted Dr. and Mrs. Kevin Schlamp, the owners of the artwork, and explained its looted history. Schlamps voluntarily surrendered the piece.

Following this, with the help of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, a consent judgment was secured in May 2024. The judgment awarded full ownership of the Monet to the Parlagi heirs.

“We are honored to have played a role in returning this stolen artwork to its rightful owners,” said James Dennehy. “While this Monet is undoubtedly valuable, its true worth lies in what it represents to the Parlagi family. It’s a connection to their history, their loved ones, and a legacy that was nearly erased,” he added.

The FBI’s work on this case is ongoing. Several other pieces of artwork were stolen from the Parlagi family in 1940 and the search is on.

Video: Environment Activists Smear Paint On Monet Artwork In Stockholm

Impression, Sunrise by French painter Claude Monet on display at the Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism show in Paris.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Orsay Museum in Paris is marking 150 years of Impressionism from March 26 with an unprecedented reassembling of the masterpieces that launched the movement, and a virtual reality experience that takes visitors back in time.

Using VR technology, visitors to Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism can take a plunge into the streets, salons and beauty spots that marked a revolution in art.

Through VR helmets, they can walk alongside the likes of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne on April 15, 1874, when, tired of being rejected by the conservative gatekeepers of the official art Salon, these rebellious young painters put on their own independent show, later seen as the birth of Impressionism.

Strong ‘impression’

The Orsay has brought together 160 paintings from that year, including dozens of masterpieces from that show, including the blood-red sun of Monet’s Impression, Sunrise, credited with giving the movement its name, and his Boulevard des Capucines where the exhibition took place.

In rapid, spontaneous brushstrokes, the Impressionists captured everyday scenes of modern life, from Degas’s ballet dancers to Camille Pissaro’s countryside idylls to Auguste Renoir’s riverside party in Bal du Moulin de la Galette.

They came to define the excitement and restlessness of a new, modern age emerging out of a devastating war with Prussia and a short-lived Parisian revolt a few years earlier. “The Impressionists wanted to paint the world as it is, one in the midst of major change,” said Sylvie Patry, co-curator of the exhibition.

“They were interested in new subjects: railways, tourism, the world of entertainment… They wanted to put sensations, impressions, the immediate moment at the heart of their painting,” she added.

Thanks to loans from the National Gallery in Washington and other museums, it is the first time that many of the paintings — including Renoir’s The Parisian Girl and The Dancer — have hung together in 150 years.

Rejecting ‘tradition’

The exhibition also includes works from that year’s official Salon, showing how the Impressionists rejected the stiff formalism of traditionalists and their obsession with great battles and mythological tales, but also how there was some cross-over, as all sorts of painters gradually adopted new styles.

“The story of that exhibition is more nuanced than we think,” said Ms. Patry. “The artists all knew each other and had begun painting in this different style from the 1860s.”

Impressionism did not take off immediately: only some 3,500 people came to the first show, compared with 3,00,000 to the Salon, and only four paintings were sold out of some 200 works. It would take several more exhibitions in the following years for the movement to make its mark.

The Orsay exhibition runs to July 14 and moves to Washington from September.