French heiress renounces claim to Nazi-looted Pissarro

A French heiress who spent years trying to win back a priceless impressionist painting that was stolen by the Nazis on Tuesday renounced her claim to the work to end a feud with an American university. Leone Meyer, 81, spent nearly a decade trying to secure ownership of Pissarro's 1886 La Bergère rentrant des moutons ('Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep'), which was seized from her parents during the occupation of Paris in World War II. After the war, the painting ended up in Switzerland before winding up in a private US collection. In 2016, Meyer was declared its rightful owner but the terms of the deal struck with the University of Oklahoma, to which the work was bequeathed in 2000, prevented her from realising her dream of leaving it to the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, a temple of impressionist art. "Mrs Meyer has decided to put an end to her struggle to obtain restitution of this painting. UO has now obtained full title of the painting," her lawyer Ron Soffer confirmed Tuesday. Meyer had fought hard to overturn a clause in the restitution contract, which stipulated that the oil-on-canvas painting be rotated between museums in Paris and Oklahoma every three years – a commitment that...