Guggenheim Museum is SUED by family demanding return of '$200m' Picasso painting sold by their Jewish ancestors for a pittance while desperately trying to flee Nazis

  • The Guggenheim is being sued by the family of the original owners of a Picasso
  • The painting has been hanging in the New York museum since 1978
  • The original owners sold the painting cheaply as they fled the Nazis 

The Guggenheim museum is facing a lawsuit from a Jewish family who say that their ancestors were taken advantage of by a renowned art dealer after he bought a painting by Pablo Picasso from them as they were escaping the Nazis in 1938. 

The 1904 work by the Spanish artist, Woman Ironing (La repasseuse), was given to the Guggenheim in 1978 by the family of art dealer Justin Thannhauser who bought the painting from Karl and Rosi Adler as the couple was attempting to flee to South America. It's now estimated to be worth between $100 million and $200 million.

According to the lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan Supreme Court, Thannhauser, a lifelong friend of Picasso's, paid the Adlers $1,552 for the painting, equivalent to about $30,000 today. Thannhauser's family gave the painting for free to the Guggenheim Foundation in 1976. 

The lawsuit, filed by the Adler's relatives, including their grandchildren, say that the couple would never have sold for that price had they not been facing persecution, according to the New York Post. 

In 2012, a New York Times article called Woman Ironing 'one of the [Guggenheim museum's] most prized possessions.' 

According to the Guggenheim's website, Picasso 'imbued his subject with a poetic, almost spiritual presence, making her a metaphor for the misfortunes of the working poor'

According to the Guggenheim's website, Picasso 'imbued his subject with a poetic, almost spiritual presence, making her a metaphor for the misfortunes of the working poor'

According to the lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan Supreme Court, Justin Thannhauser, shown here, paid the Adlers $1,552 for the painting

According to the lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan Supreme Court, Justin Thannhauser, shown here, paid the Adlers $1,552 for the painting

The family say that the painting is 'in the wrongful possession of the Guggenheim.' The lawsuit estimates the painting to be worth somewhere between $100 and $200 million. 

The Adler family bought the painting from Thannhauser's father, Heinrich, in 1916 in Munich. 

Following the rise of Hitler, the Adlers saw their lives 'shattered' when Hitler rose to power. 

During that period, Karl Adler looked into selling the painting, seeking $14,000, around $300,000 in today's money, for the work, but ultimately he opted to keep it. 

Less than a year before World War II began, in 1938, the couple found themselves with no choice other than to sell as a result of the Nazi's policies stripping them of the jobs and opportunities. 

They sold the painting back to Thannhauser for just $1,552, around $32,000 in 2023 money. Later, Thannhauser fled his homeland and settled in New York. He gifted the Picasso, and many other works to the Guggenheim, upon his death in 1976. 

The couple left Germany and spent time bouncing around Europe even as World War II broke out. In 1940, the gained passage to Argentina. 

In 2012, a New York Times article called Woman Ironing 'one of the [Guggenheim museum's] most prized possessions'

In 2012, a New York Times article called Woman Ironing 'one of the [Guggenheim museum's] most prized possessions'

One section of the lawsuit reads: 'Thannhauser was buying comparable masterpieces from other German Jews who were fleeing from Germany and profiting from their misfortune. 

'Thannhauser was well aware of the plight of Adler and his family, and that, absent Nazi persecution, Adler would never have sold the painting when he did at such a price,' according to the Post. 

Rosi Adler died in 1946 in Buenos Aires and Karl died at the age of 85 in 1957 while back in Germany. It took until now for the family to realize that they could attempt to claim the painting back. 

The lawsuit cites the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 as legal footing for the return of the painting. 

According to the Guggenheim's website, Picasso 'imbued his subject with a poetic, almost spiritual presence, making her a metaphor for the misfortunes of the working poor.' 

Picasso painted the work in 1904 at the age of 22. 

The New York Times reported in 1978 that Woman Ironing was given to the Guggenheim alongside van Gogh's Mountains at Saint‐Remy, Manet's Woman Before a Mirror and two paintings by Renoir

The New York Times reported in 1978 that Woman Ironing was given to the Guggenheim alongside van Gogh's Mountains at Saint‐Remy, Manet's Woman Before a Mirror and two paintings by Renoir

The New York Times reported in 1978 that Woman Ironing was given to the Guggenheim alongside van Gogh's Mountains at Saint‐Remy, Manet's Woman Before a Mirror and two paintings by Renoir. 

The piece makes reference to Woman Ironing being displayed in Munich in 1913 in what was the first public retrospective of Picasso's work. 

The article also refers to Thannhauser collecting artwork around the time of the Nazi's rise as his 'heroic period.' 

The painting was significantly damaged in 1952 while it was temporarily on display in Paris when a thief attempted to cut it out of its frame. He didn't get the painting but the canvas needed lengthy repairs. 

In 2009, a similar claim was made against the New York museums regarding the Picasso works Boy Leading a Horse and Le Moulin de la Galette, both of which were once owned by Thannhauser and whose original owners wanted returned.

Ultimately, an agreement was reached to allow Boy Leading to Horse to remain at the Museum of Modern Art and Le Moulin de la Galette to remain at the Guggenheim. 

In the past, courts have ordered the return of Nazi-looted art to the heirs of former Jewish owners.