Metropolitan Museum Responds to Legal Action Over Supposedly Nazi-Looted Van Gogh Painting

The family members of a Jewish couple have brought a case against New York's Metropolitan Museum, asserting that a Van Gogh oil painting was looted by the Third Reich.

Origins of the Dispute

According to the court documents, the Stern couple bought the artwork, titled Gathering Olives, in 1935. The following year, they were compelled to leave their dwelling in Munich, Germany just before the Second World War.

The legal action states that the institution, which purchased the artwork in the 1950s for $125,000, must have realized it was almost certainly looted property. The family are now demanding the repatriation of the painting along with damages.

In the decades since World War II, this stolen artwork has been often and discreetly exchanged, acquired and disposed of in and through NYC, alleges the lawsuit.

Family's Flight

The Sterns fled from the city of Munich to America in 1936 with their offspring due to Nazi persecution. However, they were barred from transporting the Van Gogh piece, which was produced by the renowned Dutch in the late 19th century.

Before they left, the Nazi government declared the artwork as a German cultural asset and banned the family from exporting it. Once approved from a Nazi official, a agent assigned by the regime auctioned the artwork on the family's behalf. But, the money from the sale were placed in a restricted account, which the Nazis later seized.

Post-War History

By 1948, or soon after, the canvas arrived in NYC and was bought by a wealthy American, a member of the Astor family. Eventually, it was sold through a commercial outlet to the institution, which then sold it to wealthy Greek businessman Basil Goulandris and his partner, Elise Goulandris, in the early 1970s.

The Greek couple set up the Goulandris Foundation in 1979, which operates a gallery in Athens where the artwork is currently on display.

Court Allegations

The foundation and a surviving nephew of Basil Goulandris are identified in the suit. The legal action states that the family and its associated organizations have concealed and disguised the artwork's provenance and current place from the plaintiffs.

Currently, the foundation continue to hide the manner and time the foundation came into ownership of the piece; the Stern family's ownership of the masterpiece from the mid-1930s; and the reality that the Third Reich stole the canvas from the heirs, forced the family into disposing of it via a regime representative, and took the money of the sale.

Earlier Lawsuits

The family initiated a related lawsuit in the state of California in the year 2022, but it was rejected in the following years. An legal challenge was also rejected in recently.

The Met's Position

The legal action states that the museum's acquisition of the painting was authorized by Theodore Rousseau Jr, the institution's specialist of European art and a leading authority on Nazi art looting. The curator and the museum were aware or ought to have been aware that the masterpiece had almost certainly been looted by the Nazis.

The museum issued a statement that it takes seriously its ongoing pledge to address claims from the Nazi period.

An official stated: At no time during the institution's custody of the artwork was there any record that it had earlier been possessed to the Stern family – indeed, that data did not become available until several decades after the masterpiece left the Met's possession.

The institution's deaccessioning of the Van Gogh met the Met's guidelines for deaccessioning – in particular, it was recorded that the artwork was judged to be of inferior standard than additional artworks of the same type in the holdings. Although The Met upholds its view that this piece entered the holdings and was sold lawfully and well within all guidelines and policies, the institution welcomes and will consider any additional details that comes to light.

Foundation's Defense

William Charron representing BEG said: The Goulandris Foundation is a highly prestigious organization in Athens. The effort to take legal action against the Foundation and the family in the America upon misleadingly incomplete allegations was earlier rejected, multiple times. We are confident it will be once more.