NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. government said Wednesday it had returned a Claude Monet pastel to the granddaughters of the Austrian couple that owned the artwork before Nazis seized it in 1940 using a law targeting assets that belonged to "Enemies of the People."

"Bord de Mer" was created around 1865, when the artist was in his mid-20s. Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi of Vienna, Austria, purchased it in 1936, then put it in storage with other works in 1938 as they fled the Nazis via Switzerland and London. 

According to the FBI, the Gestapo seized it in 1940, citing the Law on the Seizure of Assets of Enemies of the People, and the Monet was purchased by a Nazi art dealer in 1941.

Court documents detailed Adalbert Parlagi's effort to track down the work, and the others, after World War II. He was rebuffed at every turn.

"In reply to your letter of the 20th March, I would like to inform you politely that your household property was seized and confiscated by the Secret State Police (Gestapo) on 8.IV.1941, taken to the Dorotheum and sold there," the Zdenko Dworak storage company of Vienna wrote to Parlagi in 1946. "Who bought it and what price was achieved for it, unfortunately I do not know."

Its provenance still unknown, by 2016 the pastel was owned by the Galerie Helene Bailly in Paris, which loaned it out for an exhibit in Ornans, France. Court documents said a New Orleans art dealer acquired it from the gallery in 2017 and sold it to Kevin and Bridget Schlamp in 2019. The Schlamps offered it for sale in 2023.

Meanwhile, the FBI had learned about the piece in 2021 from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. After notifying the Schlamps about the piece's history, the couple voluntarily relinquished their rights to the painting, clearing the way for Wednesday's repatriation to the Parlagis' granddaughters.