FBI returns Nazi-looted Monet pastel to Jewish owners' heirs 84 years later

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In 1940, the Nazis seized a Claude Monet pastel and seven other works of art from Adalbert "Bela" and Hilda Parlagi, a Jewish couple forced to flee their Vienna home after Austria was annexed into Adolf Hitler's Germany.

After the war, Bela Parlagi searched for his art to no avail until his death in 1981. His son continued the search without success until he died in 2012.

But on Wednesday, more than 80 years later, Parlagi's granddaughters Helen Lowe and Francoise Parlagi were reunited with the missing Monet after the FBI and a Britain-based nonprofit located it in the United States.

"It's an act of justice to have it returned," said Anne Webber, the co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, the non-profit that started helping Parlagis' heirs search for the missing art in 2014. "It has huge sentimental feeling for the family."

The 7- by 11-inch (18- by 28-centimetre) pastel, called "Bord de Mer," dates back to 1865 and features a scene from France's Normandy shoreline.

The family stored the piece with the rest of their belongings at a shipping company warehouse in 1938. The Nazis seized their property in 1940 and the Monet pastel was sold at auction in 1941.

The FBI got involved in 2021, after the commission discovered that a New Orleans-based art dealer had acquired the painting in 2017 and sold it to private collectors in 2019.

The FBI recovered the painting in 2023, after it appeared for sale at a Houston-based gallery.

The FBI said the owners of the pastel - Bridget Vita and her late husband Kevin Schlamp, did not realize the Nazis had stolen the Monet and they voluntarily surrendered it.

"While this Monet is undoubtedly valuable, its true worth lies in what it represents to the Parlagi family," said James Dennehy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York City office, in a statement.

In March, the Parlagi family recovered another artwork when the Austrian government returned a chalk drawing of German composer Richard Wagner by Franz von Lenbach, after the commission located it at the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

Webber, who advises anyone buying art to carefully check its provenance, estimates about 90% of the artwork and other possessions stolen by the Nazis is still missing.

The Parlagi family is still searching for six artworks, including a signed watercolor by Paul Signac called Seine in Paris, and the FBI's investigation is ongoing.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)