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The heirs of a Jewish spouses have filed a lawsuit against The Met, asserting that a Vincent van Gogh oil painting was looted by Nazi forces.

Case History

As stated in the court documents, Hedwig and Frederick Stern purchased the painting, titled Olive Harvest, in the mid-1930s. The following year, they were obliged to escape their dwelling in Munich, Germany just before World War II.

The legal action argues that the museum, which purchased 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 canvas along with compensation.

Following World War II, this stolen artwork has been frequently and covertly traded, bought and sold in and through NYC, alleges the court document.

The Sterns' Escape

The Sterns fled from Munich to the United States in 1936 with their offspring due to persecution by the Nazis. However, they were barred from transporting the artwork, which was painted by the renowned Dutch in 1889.

Before the family's emigration, Nazi authorities classified the masterpiece as German cultural property and forbade the couple from bringing it with them. Once approved from a regime representative, a trustee appointed by the Nazis auctioned the artwork on the couple's behalf. Yet, the money from the sale were deposited in a restricted account, which the Nazis later confiscated.

Later Transactions

By 1948, or soon after, the artwork arrived in New York and was purchased by a wealthy American, one of America's wealthiest people. Subsequently, it was exchanged through a commercial outlet to the museum, which then passed it on to prominent shipowner the magnate and his spouse, Mrs. Goulandris, in the early 1970s.

The Goulandris pair set up the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in the late 1970s, which manages a museum in Athens, Greece where the masterpiece is currently shown.

Legal Arguments

The institution and a family member of the magnate are named as defendants. The filing states that the Goulandris family and its related entities have concealed and disguised the artwork's provenance and location from the heirs.

To this day, the Goulandris Defendants continue to hide the circumstances the foundation came into control of the Painting; the couple's ownership of the artwork from 1935 to 1938; and the facts that the Nazis confiscated the artwork from the Stern family, coerced the family into disposing of it via a regime representative, and took the proceeds of the deal.

Previous Legal Action

The descendants submitted a related lawsuit in California in recently, but it was rejected in the following years. An further action was also denied in recently.

Institution's Statement

The legal action contends that the Met's purchase of the artwork was approved by a curator, the Met's authority of Old Masters and one of the world's foremost experts on Nazi art looting. The institution and its expert were aware or ought to have been aware that the masterpiece had probably been seized by the Nazis.

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

A spokesperson commented: Not once during the museum's possession of the painting was there any documentation that it had previously been owned to the Stern family – indeed, that knowledge did not become accessible until several decades after the masterpiece left the Museum's collection.

The Met's sale of the artwork met the museum's strict criteria for deaccessioning – namely, it was documented that the piece was considered to be of lesser quality than other works of the same type in the holdings. Even though the museum maintains its stance that this artwork entered the inventory and was deaccessioned lawfully and well within all rules and regulations, the museum welcomes and will consider any new information that is discovered.

Foundation's Defense

William Charron acting for the foundation stated: The Goulandris Foundation is a renowned institution in the Greek capital. The effort to litigate and defame the Foundation and the Goulandris family in the America upon misleadingly incomplete allegations was earlier rejected, on two occasions. We are convinced it will be once more.