A rare Monet painting has been returned to the family of its rightful owners, eight decades after it was stolen by the Nazis

After eighty years, a Nazi-looted painting by Claude Monet, stolen during World War II, has finally been returned to its rightful owners.

The artwork—Bord de Mer (Coast) – may be worth it up to $700,000. Painted around 1865, the faint pastel depicts rocks along the beaches of Normandy, which Allied forces would later storm on D-Day in 1944.

“We are extremely proud to have been able to recover this remarkable work of art and return it to its rightful owners,” says Chad Yarbroughthe Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division, in a statement.

According to the FBI’s art crime team, a couple in Washington state had recently purchased the painting and put it up for sale at a gallery in Houston. The agency then received a tip about the past of the artwork.

In 1936 Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi bought it Bord de Mer to hang in their home in Vienna, Austria. Just two years later they left their country to escape the Nazis. The Parlagis placed all their belongings in storage in Vienna, hoping they could retrieve them later.

When the war ended, Adalbert wrote to the storage company to inquire about the family’s belongings. According to Louisiana WBRZ TVcompany employees responded with bad news in 1946:

‘I would like to politely inform you that your household belongings have been seized and confiscated by the Secret State Police [Gestapo] on 8.IV.1941, brought to the Dorotheum and sold there,” the company wrote. “Unfortunately, I don’t know who bought it and what price it got for it.”

For decades, Monet’s fate was uncertain. Then it finally resurfaced in 2016 during an exhibition on Impressionism in France CNNby Hannah Rabinowitz.

A New Orleans antiques dealer bought the pastel and sold it to Washington couple Kevin Schlamp and Bridget Vita-Schlamp, who were unaware the piece had been stolen. They planned to sell it in Houston.

Vita-Schlamp tells the Times-Picayune/New Orleans AdvocateDoug MacCash recounts that she and her husband had been on vacation when they learned that their Monet painting had been looted by the Nazis.

“We were shocked,” she says. “We quickly realized that it had to go back to the family. … We lost a painting, but the Jewish community had lost much more.”

On October 9, the FBI returned Bord de Mer to the granddaughters of Adalbert and Hilda. Françoise Parlagi tells it Associated press‘ Jack Brook says she is grateful to have the valuable family heirloom back.

“There are so many families in this situation,” she said. “Maybe they haven’t even tried to recover because they don’t believe, they think this might not be possible.” She adds, “Let’s be hope for other families.”