Missing since 1941

Monet masterpiece restituted to descendants

Helen Lowe and Françoise Parlagi, the granddaughters of the rightful owner, were relieved to receive the Monet.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/AP)

More than 80 years ago, the painting "Bord de Mer" was stolen by the Nazis in Vienna, but now the FBI has been able to solve the art mystery. And return the painting to its rightful owners.

Adalbert "Bela" Parlagi was a successful businessman and art lover in Vienna in the 1930s. But then the Nazis marched in and drove him and his family out of the city and country. The Gestapo confiscated and auctioned off all his cultural treasures, including the painting "Bord de Mer" by the famous French Impressionist Claude Monet. In 1941, the painting fell into the hands of a Nazi art dealer, and then the trail was lost.

Nazi-looted art turned up in a gallery
In 2023, more than eight decades later, it turned up in a gallery in the US state of Texas. The FBI, the central security authority of the United States, then began an investigation. The owners at the time voluntarily returned the painting after a conversation with FBI agents - they had no idea that "Bord de Mer" was Nazi-looted art.

Monet's painting "Bord de Mer" had been considered lost since 1941.

(Bild: FBI Washington D.C.)

Thanks to their cooperation, the investigators have now been able to hand over the multi-million euro work to the heirs of the Parlagi family. Parlagi's granddaughters Helen Lowe and Françoise Parlagi recently accepted the painting: "It is an honor to return this important piece of art to its rightful owners," explains FBI Director James Dennehy. The case highlights the importance of returning stolen cultural property. Other stolen works of art from the Parlagi family, including a watercolor by Paul Signac, remain missing.

However, the family received another work of art back in March - a chalk drawing of the German composer Richard Wagner by Franz von Lenbach. A commission had located the work in the Albertina in Vienna.