Los Angeles ? 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, University of California, 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.