A painting by Camille Pissarro in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is under renewed scrutiny over the circumstances of its sale by its former owner, the department store magnate and art collector Max Julius Braunthal. As reported by the New York Times, seven of Braunthal’s heirs have filed suit in a French court, alleging that the painting, Haystacks, Morning, Eragny (1899), was sold under duress in 1941. The Met maintains that Braunthal received fair market value for the work, which depicts several domed haystacks in a verdant, tree-filled meadow in Eragny, the village northwest of Paris where Pissarro lived from 1884 until his death in 1903. Related Articles Braunthal’s heirs cite a 2023 French law stating that all art sales made by Jews during the Nazi occupation of France are to be considered null and void. Braunthal sold Haystacks, Morning, Eragny for 100,000 francs to Paul Durand-Ruel’s gallery during that period. The law allows “stolen art, books, and other cultural property in France’s inalienable public domain—even work looted beyond its borders—to be …