Fate of Nazi-looted Pissarro to be decided by US supreme court

The legal battle over the painting, in the hands of a Madrid museum, has spanned more than 15 years

Depicting a rainswept Paris street, the Nazi-looted painting has long hung on the walls of one of Madrid's top art museums. Its fate is now in the hands of the highest court in the US, in a case that has long pitted the Spanish institution against the heirs of Jewish refugees.

At the centre of the US supreme court hearing, set to begin on Tuesday, is an 1897 painting by impressionist Camille Pissarro. For decades the piece - titled Rue Saint-Honore in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain - graced the walls of the Cassirer family homes in Berlin and Munich after it was bought directly from Pissarro's art dealer.