Round 2: Victory In The Stolen Art World

Liz Taylor may have unfairly won her case a few weeks back and gotten to keep her Van Gogh, but the U.S. District Court, has scratched out a small measure of justice for the estate of art dealer Max Stern. Stern, who died in 1987, ran his family's art gallery in Germany in the 1930s. In 1937, the Nazis forced him to auction off the contents and he fled the country, settling in Canada, where he became a renowned art dealer. Stern didn't keep the proceeds from the auction because he had to pay random imposed taxes in order to get exit papers for his mother, who was still in Germany.

The painting in question is Girl from Sabiner Mountains, painted by 19th century artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter and the disputed owner is German baroness Maria-Luise Bissonnette. The painting had been purchased at the auction by Bissonnette's stepfather, a member of the Nazi Party. She had tried to auction it in 2005, which is when Stern's estate learned of its whereabouts. Unable to negotiate the painting's return, the estate lawyers brought the lawsuit. Today, its estimated worth is a little under $100K.

Stern left his estate to McGill and Concordia universities in Montreal and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, all of which are continuing his efforts to locate his remaining 400 missing paintings.