New York's Met Museum Responds to Legal Action Over Allegedly Nazi-Plundered Van Gogh Masterpiece

The family members of a Jewish couple have initiated legal proceedings against New York's Metropolitan Museum, asserting that a Van Gogh canvas was seized by the Nazis.

Origins of the Dispute

According to the legal filing, Hedwig and Frederick Stern acquired the painting, titled Gathering Olives, in the year 1935. A year after, they were obliged to escape their dwelling in the German city of Munich prior to WWII.

The legal action states that the Met, which acquired the painting in the mid-1950s for $125,000, ought to have been aware it was likely confiscated property. The family are now requesting the repatriation of the painting along with financial restitution.

In the decades since World War II, this plundered piece has been frequently and covertly traded, acquired and disposed of in and through the city of New York, alleges the court document.

Forced Emigration

The Stern family fled from their Munich home to America in 1936 with their offspring due to persecution by the Nazis. Yet, they were barred from transporting the artwork, which was created by the Dutch post-impressionist in 1889.

Prior to their departure, the regime declared the painting as property of the state and prohibited the couple from exporting it. After obtaining permission from a Nazi official, a trustee appointed by the authorities auctioned the piece on the family's behalf. Yet, the funds from the transaction were held in a blocked account, which the authorities later confiscated.

Subsequent Ownership

Around 1948, or not long after, the canvas was brought to NYC and was bought by a wealthy American, a member of the Astor family. Eventually, it was exchanged through a art dealer to the institution, which then sold it to prominent shipowner Basil Goulandris and his partner, Mrs. Goulandris, in 1972.

Basil and Elise set up the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in the late 1970s, which operates a gallery in Athens where the painting is currently exhibited.

Legal Arguments

BEG and a family member of Goulandris are named as defendants. The legal action alleges that the family and its related entities have covered up the painting's ownership and whereabouts from the plaintiffs.

Currently, the foundation continue to conceal the circumstances the BEG came into control of the Painting; the couple's ownership of the artwork from 1935 to 1938; and the reality that the Third Reich stole the Painting from the Stern family, coerced the Sterns into selling it via a regime representative, and confiscated the funds of the deal.

Previous Legal Action

The descendants 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.

Museum's Response

The complaint contends that the museum's acquisition of the artwork was authorized by a curator, the Met's authority of European paintings and one of the world's foremost experts on Nazi-era looted art. Rousseau and the Met knew or should have known that the artwork had almost certainly been seized by the Nazis.

The museum issued a statement that it takes seriously its longstanding commitment to address Nazi-era claims.

A representative stated: At no time during The Met's ownership of the piece was there any documentation that it had previously been owned to the heirs – actually, that knowledge did not become known until several decades after the masterpiece left the Museum's collection.

The institution's deaccessioning of the artwork met the museum's strict criteria for deaccessioning – specifically, it was noted that the work was judged to be of inferior standard than other pieces of the similar kind in the holdings. Although the institution respectfully stands by its stance that this work entered the inventory and was removed properly and well within all rules and regulations, the museum invites and will examine any new information that comes to light.

BEG's Response

William Charron on behalf of the Goulandris Foundation commented: The Goulandris Foundation is a highly prestigious organization in Greece. The effort to take legal action against the Foundation and the defendants in the United States upon inaccurate and partial claims was previously dismissed, twice. We are certain it will be once more.