This is the story of a lost painting.

In 1938 there was Hermann Goering, Garman Nazi military leader, who was also a part time art dealer and collector.

The Gestapo was ordered under his command to steal and loot artworks especially from Jewish families of which one was a Camille Pissarro painting entitled “Le Quai Malaquais, Printemps.” It was then stashed in a bank vault in Zurich, Switzerland as the dispute between three nations settles down.

Today, more than 70 years later Gisela Bermann-Fischer eagwerly awaits a reunion with this family treasure, but the cost of time and money (at least $466 thousand in lawyer’s fees) spent on the hunt for this missing painting did not outweigh the benefit of keeping it and so on June 23 it will be auctioned at Christie’s art auction house in London and is estimated to fetch between 900,000 pounds ($1.45 million) and 1.5 million pounds. The bloomberg article might have more information on the Gestapo Looted Pissarro

During the search, Bermann-Fischer learned about her families displacements as a result of World War II as do most families keen in tracking down lost possessions from that time. Although losing art works through the Gestapo is not the only way art gets stolen, there is now a website dedicated to reporting and finding lost artworks at the Art Loss Register

I found a student written article to get an idea of more stealing occuring in the art world it’s entitled Stolen Art The Unsexy Truth