French court rules Pissarro painting belongs to Jewish heirs

In this Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017 file photo Jean-Jacques Bauer, looks at a reproduction of a valuable Pissarro painting he recovered, during an interview with the Associated Press, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

PARIS -- A Paris appeals court has confirmed a ruling ordering an American couple to return a Camille Pissarro painting to the descendants of a Jewish family that owned the art work before it was seized during the Second World War.

The couple, prominent Philadelphia collectors Bruce and Robbi Toll, loaned Pissarro's "La Cueillette des Pois" ("Picking Peas") to a Paris museum for an exhibition last year.

But the painting was placed in temporary escrow after one of the French heirs recognized it and sued to get it back.

The Tolls, who are Jewish, said they did not know when they bought the Pissarro that it had been stolen by France's war-era Vichy regime from Jewish collector Simon Bauer.