A Rare Monet Painting Has Been Returned to the Family of Its Rightful Owners—Eight Decades After It Was Stolen by the Nazis

After eight decades, a Nazi-looted Claude Monet painting stolen during World War II has finally been returned to its rightful owners.

The artwork—Bord de Mer (Seaside)—could be worth up to $700,000. Painted around 1865, the hazy pastel depicts rocks along the beaches of Normandy, which Allied forces would later storm on D-Day in 1944.

“We are immensely proud to have been able to recover this remarkable piece of art and bring it home to its rightful owners,” says Chad Yarbrough, the FBI’s criminal investigative division assistant director, in a statement.

According to the FBI’s art crime team, a couple in Washington state had recently purchased the painting and listed it for sale at a Houston gallery. Then, the bureau got a tip about the artwork’s past.

In 1936, Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi purchased Bord de Mer to hang in their home in Vienna, Austria. Just two years later, they left their country to escape the Nazis. The Parlagis placed all of their belongings in storage in Vienna, hoping that they could retrieve them later.

When the war ended, Adalbert wrote to the storage company to inquire about the family’s possessions. According to Louisiana’s WBRZ-TV, staffers at the company replied in 1946 with bad news:

“I would like to inform you politely that your household property was seized and confiscated by the Secret State Police [Gestapo] on 8.IV.1941, taken to the Dorotheum and sold there,” wrote the company. “Who bought it and what price was achieved for it, unfortunately I do not know.”

For decades, the fate of the Monet was uncertain. Then, in 2016, it finally resurfaced at an Impressionism exhibition in France, according to CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz.

A New Orleans antiquities dealer bought the pastel and sold it to the Washington couple, Kevin Schlamp and Bridget Vita-Schlamp—who didn’t know the piece had been stolen. They planned to sell it in Houston.

Vita-Schlamp tells the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate’s Doug MacCash that she and her husband had been on vacation when they learned their Monet painting had been looted by the Nazis.

“We were shocked,” she says. “We were quick to realize that it needed to go back to the family. … We lost a painting, but the Jewish community had lost so much more.”

On October 9, the FBI returned Bord de Mer to Adalbert and Hilda’s granddaughters. Françoise Parlagi tells the Associated Press’ Jack Brook that she is grateful to have the treasured family heirloom back.

“So many families are in this situation,” she says. “Maybe they haven’t even been trying to recover because they don’t believe, they think this might not be possible.” She adds, “Let us be hope for other families.”

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.