3.0k shares SHARE TWEET SMS SEND EMAIL Twenty-six Republican Oklahoma legislators signed a resolution May 11 demanding that the University of Oklahoma (OU) return a piece of artwork plundered by the Nazi’s during World War II. The , which doesn’t carry the force of law and is only meant to compel action in this case, directs the university and the  on OU’s campus to “conduct provenance research on objects in the collection and prior to the acquisition of certain objects; directing certain resolution regarding objects unlawfully appropriated during the Nazi era; and directing distribution.” This new legislation is inspired by the university’s refusal to return Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep — an 1886 oil painting by notable French impressionist Camille Pissarro — to a Jewish family whose department store and extensive art collection was raided during the Nazi occupation of France in 1940. Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep hangs in a gallery at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. PHOTO:Associated Press Leone Meyer garnered national attention in May of 2013 after she filed a lawsuit against OU in federal court that claimed the painting—one of many prized works in the museum’s Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism—was stolen from her adoptive father Raoul Meyer by Nazi forces in Paris. In February of last year, Meyer sent an  to “the People of Oklahoma” describing her efforts to retrieve the painting. “We think that the university is on the wrong side of history,” says state , who is the lead author of the resolution. “We want to send a message to the university. It’s an embarrassment that they refuse to return the painting.” Wesselhoft says he had sent a letter to OU President David Boren two years urging him “to do the right and moral thing.” “I told him ‘you can be a hero,’” Wesselhoft says But Wesselhoft says he threatened, if the painting wasn’t returned, that he would make his case public. Boren, who Wesselhoft considers a friend, later responded witha letter that was “courteous, but in the words of legalese.” Boren’s response didn’t sit well with Wesselhoft. “It was a response you might expect from an attorney,” Wesselhoft says. Meyer’s entire biological family was murdered during the Holocaust, but she was fortunate enough to survive the genocide. She would go on to spend decades searching for the painting, which included suing a Swiss art dealer who owned it in 1953. A Swiss judge dismissed her suit, citing a law in place at the time that denied claims for art filed after a five-year window succeeding the war, . OU has cited this same court case in their current defense for keeping the painting. The painting ended up in a New York City gallery before it was purchased by Norman oilman Aaron Weitzenhoffer and his wife, Clara, in 1956. When Clara died in 2000, the painting, along with an extensive collection of other French impressionist art, was given to the OU museum. “People are saying that they are in it for the money, thatthey don’t care about the actual art,” says Eric Sundby. Sunby is president of the , a recently formed student organization at OU that has partnered with Wesselhoft to get the resolution passed and see that the painting is returned. “I can promise you from experience of communicating with a few of these people that it’s not about the money,” says Sunby. “(Meyer) plans to get this painting back and keep it with her family, because she’s trying to remember a time in which her people were not being killed in the streets and being gassed in gas chambers.” According to Sundby, there are Nazi documents confirming that the work was stolen. He also says both the museum and university are committing a crime by withholding the painting. According to Sundby, they are violating the code of ethics created by the American Alliance of Museums and other museum organizations at the  in 1998 in Washington D.C. Sundby says the code states that museums must “conduct provenance research if you are a museumin the Unites States when that artifact comes into your holding” to ensure it was not stolen. “The university did not conduct provenance research; they are also a member of the AAM,” Sundby says. Michael Bendure, the Director of Communications for the museum, declined to comment on the case. is a student at The University of Oklahoma and a summer 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. , , ,   3.0k shares SHARE TWEET SMS SEND EMAIL Related Stories Comments