( JTA ) — When Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi fled Vienna in 1938, a month after the Nazi annexation of Austria, they left behind a collection of artwork, which they and their heirs spent decades trying to retrieve.
On Wednesday in New Orleans, FBI agents presented the couple’s grandchildren with one of the looted works: a pastel drawing by French impressionist Claude Monet.
“Our grandfather would have been so happy to find out this Monet was being restituted after all his attempts over the years,” the heirs said in a joint statement. “This is a very moving and exceptional day for us, a day neither of us ever thought would happen.”
The 1865 Monet measures 7 by 11 inches and is titled “Bord de Mer,” which means “Seaside.” It depicts a rocky section of the Normandy coast, where Allied forces landed on D-Day in 1944, beginning their liberation of Nazi-occupied France.
The pastel is one of about 600,000 works of art, along with millions of books and religious items, that were looted by the Nazis during World War II. The FBI’s Art Crime Team, which worked on this case, has helped recover some 20,000 artworks over the years.