"The dispute over one work of art, Landscape with Smokestacks by Edgar Degas, was featured in headlines and on television. As told by the media the story was straightforward: The landscape, owned by a Jewish banker in the Netherlands, was sent to Paris in 1939 for safekeeping. The Nazis occupied France and stole the landscape. The Jewish banker and his wife were killed in the Holocaust.

Their heirs searched for the landscape but did not locate it until it was found in the possession of an art collector in Chicago half a century later. The heirs sued to recover the work." "But the real story is far more complicated - and more compelling - than the one told by the media. Had the landscape been sent to Paris for safekeeping or to be sold? Was the work stolen by the Nazis or sold to an art dealer during the war?".

"Documents produced during the litigation shed new light on the fate of the landscape. But because the suit was settled before trial, the story behind the headlines has not been publicly presented. Howard J. Trienens, a lawyer for the defendant collector, traces the landscape's travels from its prewar home in the Netherlands to the Art Institute of Chicago, where it is now on display.".

"Whatever the merits of the respective claims, the story of Landscape with Smokestacks is an absorbing mystery. And while the mystery cannot be fully solved, Trienens demonstrates the complexity that can surround Holocaust-related restitution cases and takes the media to task for their superficial treatment of this emotionally charged case."--BOOK JACKET.