Cassirer

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER REGARDING DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO DISMISS

I.

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

A. The Lawsuit

In the present lawsuit, Plaintiff, the grandson of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, seeks to recover from the Kingdom of Spain (“Spain”) and the Thyssen-Bornem-isza Collection Foundation (the “Foundation”), a painting by Camille Pissaro (the “Painting”) that the Nazis extorted from his grandmother in 1939 as a condition to issuing her an exit visa. After World War II, the painting changed hands several times, ultimately ending up in the hands of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, one of the world’s foremost art collectors. In 1988, when the Baron loaned his collection, including the Painting, to Spain under contract, Spain spent millions of dollars to refurbish a state-owned palace, the Villah-ermosa, and provided it at no charge as the home for the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (the “Museum”) where the collection was displayed. (CompLIffl 29-30). Spain paid the Baron $50 million for a ten-year lease of the collection, but in 1993 paid an additional $327 million to enable the Foundation to purchase the entire collection. (Id.).

Plaintiff claims that he first learned in 2000 that the…