Franz Xaver Winterhalter German Baroness Appeals Court Decision to Return Painting Face to Face to Face Stern Estate Managers Hopeful After Court Ruling German Baronness Must Return Painting to Late Jewish Dealer's Estate

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The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled yesterday that Girl From the Sabine Mountains, a painting believed to be the work of Franz Xaver Winterhalter, is the rightful property of the estate of late Jewish art dealer Max Stern, whose gallery was liquidated by the Nazis in 1937.

Last year, a federal judge ordered Bissonnette to return the work, which is valued between $67,000 and $94,000, to Stern's estate. Stern lost about 400 paintings as well as his Dusseldorf gallery to the Nazis. He fled to England and eventually resettled in Canada, where he died in 1987. He left his estate to three universities, which are now trying to reclaim his missing paintings.

Bissonnette, who inherited Girl From the Sabine Mountains from her parents, appealed the earlier ruling, claiming that the Stern estate waited too long to bring its suit. But in yesterday's ruling, three judges denied her appeal.

"The mills of justice grind slowly," said Judge Bruce Selya, "but they grind exceedingly fine."

Stern estate officials hope to display the work in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.