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University of Oklahoma agrees to return Nazi-stolen painting

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2014, file photo, a visitor to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., takes a photograph of a piece called “Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep” by French impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, at the museum. Pierre Ciric, an attorney for a French woman who sued the University of Oklahoma over a painting that the Nazis stole from her family, told The Associated Press on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, that a settlement has been reached and that the university will return the painting to her. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2014, file photo, a visitor to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., takes a photograph of a piece called “Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep” by French impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, at the museum. Pierre Ciric, an attorney for a French woman who sued the University of Oklahoma over a painting that the Nazis stole from her family, told The Associated Press on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, that a settlement has been reached and that the university will return the painting to her. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2014, file photo, a visitor to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., takes a photograph of a piece called “Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep” by French impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, at the museum. Pierre Ciric, an attorney for a French woman who sued the University of Oklahoma over a painting that the Nazis stole from her family, told The Associated Press on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, that a settlement has been reached and that the university will return the painting to her. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

By Associated Press 3 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The University of Oklahoma has agreed to return a painting that the Nazis stole from a French family during World War II, a lawyer and school officials said Tuesday in announcing a settlement of a drawn-out dispute over the artwork’s ownership.

Under the settlement, the title of impressionist Camille Pissarro’s 1886 “Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep” will be transferred to Léone Meyer, a French Holocaust survivor whose father owned the painting when it was stolen, her New York attorney, Pierre Ciric, told The Associated Press. Going forward, the painting will split its time being displayed at the university’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman and a museum in France.

University President David Boren said in a statement that the school is pleased the painting will still be accessible in Oklahoma and available for educational purposes. He said the agreement also recognizes “the good faith and generosity” of the Weitzenhoffer family, who bought the painting in 1956 from a New York gallery and donated it in 2000 to the university.

Boren and the school had opposed the lawsuit on largely procedural grounds, saying prior to the settlement agreement that the school had sovereign immunity. They also argued that Meyer hadn’t been diligent in pursuing her claim and that she originally sued in New York rather than Oklahoma as a “forum shopping strategy” to avoid Oklahoma’s more restrictive statute of limitations.

Oklahoma House Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, a Republican from Moore, had been an outspoken critic of the university’s decision not to immediately return the painting.