PROVIDENCE — Judges from the federal appeals court based in Boston will hear arguments in Providence this morning as part of the centennial of the federal courthouse in Kennedy Plaza.

The appearance will mark the first time the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments at the downtown courthouse since 2003.

A three-judge panel is scheduled to take up five cases, including an appeal by a German baroness living in Providence who has been ordered to relinquish a painting that a Jewish art dealer was forced to sell in Nazi Germany.

In December, Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi ruled that Maria-Louise Bissonnette must return an oil painting titled Girl from the Sabiner Mountains to the estate of Dr. Max Stern, an art collector and dealer who died in 1987 after a lengthy postwar career in Canada.

Bissonnette’s stepfather, Dr. Karl Wilharm, bought the painting at the auction in which Stern’s gallery was liquidated, and Bissonnette inherited the painting from her mother’s estate in 1991, according to court records.

In 2006, representatives of Stern’s estate learned the painting was being offered for sale by a Rhode Island auction house on consignment from Bissonnette. The auction house withdrew the painting from the auction block after being contacted by an art recovery company hired by Stern’s estate.

The Holocaust Claims Processing Office of the New York State Banking Department tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a return of the painting to Stern’s estate. In April 2006, Bissonnette revealed she had sent the painting to Germany, where she began court action “to definitely determine title to the painting,” and she obtained an appraisal that pegged the value of the painting at $67,000 to $94,000, according to court records.

On Dec. 27, Lisi ruled the painting “was taken unlawfully from Dr. Stern” and “the Stern estate is the rightful owner.” The judge ordered Bissonnette to turn the painting over to Stern’s estate, which benefits three institutions: Concordia University and McGill University in Montreal and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The 1st Circuit also is scheduled to hear arguments in the case of the United States v. Domingo A. Gonzalez — a Lawrence, Mass., man who was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute 2 kilograms of cocaine in Providence.

U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente will argue the Gonzalez case for the government, spokesman Thomas M. Connell said yesterday. When he was a private lawyer, Corrente argued 8 to 12 cases before the 1st Circuit. But U.S. Attorneys usually don’t argue cases, and since he became Rhode Island’s top federal prosecutor in 2004, Corrente has never before argued before the 1st Circuit and he’s made one appearance in a U.S. District Court case, Connell said.

Arguments are set to begin at 9:30 this morning in Courtroom 1 before Chief Circuit Judge Sandra L. Lynch, Circuit Judge Kermit V. Lipez and Senior Circuit Judge Bruce M. Selya, who is the only Rhode Islander on the appellate court.

efitzpat@projo.com