🔗 Share this article

The family members of a Jewish spouses have brought a case against New York's Metropolitan Museum, alleging that a Vincent van Gogh oil painting was seized by the Third Reich.

Case History

Per the legal filing, Hedwig and Frederick Stern acquired the painting, titled Gathering Olives, in the year 1935. Just one year later, they were obliged to escape their residence in Munich on the eve of the Second World War.

The complaint states that the museum, which obtained the painting in the 1950s for a significant sum, ought to have been aware it was almost certainly stolen property. The heirs are now seeking the repatriation of the artwork along with damages.

Following World War II, this stolen artwork has been repeatedly and secretly trafficked, bought and sold in and through New York, alleges the legal filing.

The Sterns' Escape

Hedwig and Frederick Stern departed from Munich to California in 1936 with their six children due to Nazi persecution. However, they were prevented from taking the painting, which was produced by the Dutch post-impressionist in 1889.

Before they left, the regime designated the masterpiece as a German cultural asset and forbade the family from exporting it. Once approved from a regime representative, a agent appointed by the authorities auctioned the piece on the Sterns' behalf. However, the money from the auction were placed in a blocked account, which the regime later took.

Subsequent Ownership

In 1948, or shortly after, the painting was brought to the United States and was acquired by a wealthy American, a member of the Astor family. Eventually, it was exchanged through a art dealer to the museum, which then transferred it to prominent shipowner Basil Goulandris and his partner, Elise Goulandris, in 1972.

The Goulandris pair established the Goulandris Foundation in 1979, which manages a gallery in Athens where the artwork is currently shown.

Court Allegations

The institution and a family member of Goulandris are named as defendants. The filing alleges that the family and its associated organizations have hidden and obscured the masterpiece's history and location from the heirs.

To this day, the Goulandris Defendants continue to conceal the circumstances the foundation came into ownership of the Painting; the Stern family's ownership of the masterpiece from 1935 to 1938; and the truth that the regime confiscated the Painting from the Stern family, coerced the couple into parting with it via a regime representative, and confiscated the funds of the deal.

Previous Legal Action

The Stern heirs submitted a comparable case in CA in recently, but it was dismissed in the following years. An further action was also denied in recently.

Museum's Response

The lawsuit states that the museum's acquisition of the artwork was authorized by a curator, the institution's specialist of European art and a leading authority on art theft during the Nazi era. The curator and the museum knew or should have known that the Painting had likely been stolen by the Nazis.

The Met responded that it takes seriously its ongoing pledge to handle claims from the Nazi period.

An official commented: Not once during The Met's ownership of the painting was there any documentation that it had previously been owned to the Stern family – in fact, that information did not become available until a long time after the painting left the Met's possession.

The Met's sale of Olive Picking met the institution's rigorous standards for removal from collection – in particular, it was recorded that the piece was judged to be of lower caliber than additional artworks of the comparable nature in the holdings. Even though The Met upholds its view that this work entered the collection and was sold lawfully and well within all guidelines and policies, the institution invites and will examine any new information that comes to light.

Goulandris Statement

William Charron representing the foundation said: BEG is a highly prestigious organization in Athens. The action to sue and smear the Foundation and the defendants in the America upon deceptive and insufficient accusations was earlier rejected, on two occasions. We are certain it will be again.