Lilly was a distant cousin of Fritz and herself a Cassirer. See “American Says Painting in Spain Is Holocaust Loot” by Emma Daly - http://www.museum-security.org/03/016.html

David Highland Cassirer reports that Lilly Cassirer Neubauer was his great grandmother and Claude's grandmother, and she raised Claude when his mother died when he was an infant. Claude Cassirer is the only child of her only child, and he is her heir with respect to the stolen Pissarro. Lilly's first husband Friedrich (Fritz), was the conductor of the Comic Light Opera in Berlin, and conducted throughout Europe, at Covant Garden (sp?), etc. If memory serves, Julius acquired the Pissarro directly from the artist via Durand Ruel (I think that's right, but don't quote me), the artist's representative, shortly after it was created, just before the turn of the century in 1900.

Lilly and Claude were naturally very close. David was on the Queen Mary from NY to Southhampton to visit Lilly and Otto in Oxford with his parents when he was little. After Otto died, Lilly came to live with them in Cleveland, Ohio until her death in the 1950s.

Lilly was, as a younger woman, beautiful, and interesting, and married two very prominent and extraordinary men. After Fritz died, she married Otto, who I believe was her physician, and a longtime family friend. He was probably the most extraordinary man any of us have every known. Claude has a beautiful oil of Otto, a large framed piece, at the house in San Diego.

Lilly and Otto bought their freedom from Nazi Germany in 1939 by giving up Pissarro's "Rue St. Honore," oil on canvas @ 1897, in exchange, more or less, for exit visas. The painting hangs currently in the Thyssen, and I believe we've discussed this via email previously. Lilly retained a "provenance photo" showing the painting hanging in Lilly's parlor in Munich before the war. It's quite an interesting item, and the kind of thing Holocaust families typically don't have to prove their earlier ownership of art works, as so much in the way of photos, documents ,etc. was lost in WWII. Lilly had everything like this because she and Otto escaped Germany in 1939 before the war broke out.

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Melissa Muller writes:

“In November 1938, following the Nazi pogroms against the Jewish population throughout Germany, Lilly Neubauer-Cassirer had come to the realization that every day she remained in her homeland could be life threatening. But nine months would pass before she could finally emigrate. First, the National Socialists wanted to "take care of" her assets.”

“In addition to considerable holdings in stocks and bonds, Lilly Neubauer-Cassirer had a small but exquisite art collection, featuring, among other works Small Jura Landscape by Jacob van Ruysdael, a bronze by Ernst Barlach, and Pissarro's Paris street scene. Her brother-in-law, the publisher Bruno Cassirer, had been able to safeguard some of the Impressionist works in his collection by sending them to Switzerland and advised her to at least hide the Pissarro. Lilly didn't dare.”

“Upon the orders of the Munich Currency Office, an official expert and appraiser with a concession from the Reichskammer für bildende Künste (Reich Ministry of Fine Arts) obtained a warrant to examine the art objects in Lilly Neubauer-Cassirer's home. His name was Jakob Scheidwimmer, an art dealer hice his father and his brother Xaver—and a party member since 1929. "He wanted to buy the Pissarro from me for his estimated value of RM 900 "Lilly testified under oath following the war (in August 1951). "I went along with it, although I knew this price didn't even remotely reflect its true value. Theoretically, I would have had the option of trying to sell the painting to another Aryan art dealer (a sale to a private person or giving the painting to my sister in Munich as a gift were not allowed). But the way things were at the time, with this kind of forced sale... I wouldn't have been able to get an appropriate price; the negotiations would have delayed our speedy emigration, which had become a question of life and death. Furthermore, we had to consider the possibility that Scheidwimmer—we weren't sure whether he had connections with the Gestapo—might take offense at our refusal to sell." On March 16, Jakob Scheidwimmer and Lilly "Sara" Neubauer concluded a contract for the sale ot Rue Saint-Honoré. The art dealer immediately transferred the agreed sum of 900 Reichsmarks to Lilly's blocked account—money that she admittedly could not access. It went to the German state.”777

“..on July 24, 1939, Lilly Neubauer-Cassirer and her husband Otto left Germany. Lilly alone had received a bill from the government for 104,800 RM in Jewish asset taxes, 136,713 RM in Reich flight tax, emigration fees in the amount of 11,750 RM, and an additional 6,000 RM listed as "relocation credit."… Lilly and Otto first settled in Bournemouth in southern England, and later in Oxford… Lilly Cassirer died in 1962 after spending the last years of her life with her grandson in Cleveland.”777