Los Angeles Times
June 18, 2003

ART
Suit over Picasso may leave L.A.

By Diane Haithman

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled that a legal battle over the
ownership of a $10-million Picasso painting looted by the Nazis should be
waged in Chicago, rather than Los Angeles, where the lawsuit in the case was
filed.

In December, UC Berkeley student Thomas Bennigson sued to regain control of
"Woman in White" from Chicago philanthropist Marilyn Alsdorf after being
informed by the Art Loss Register in London that the painting had belonged
to his grandmother, Carlota Landsberg, a Jewish woman who fled Germany
during World War II. Bennigson's attorney, E. Randol Schoenberg, plans to
appeal Monday's Superior Court decision.

"We do believe, with all due respect, that the decision was wrong and the
judge misapplied the factors for personal jurisdiction in California,"
Donald Burris, Schoenberg's partner on the case, said Tuesday.