The heirs of a Jewish couple are suing New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) and Greece-based Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation over a Vincent van Gogh oil painting that they state the family was forced to leave behind in Germany when they fled the Nazis againist the backdrop of World War II.
The 1889 painting titled Olive Picking was reportedly sold by The MET to a Greek collector in 1972. The American institution had arguably bought it in 1956 for $125,000.
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It once belonged to Hedwig and Frederick Stern, whose heirs are filing the lawsuit. The work had first entered the US through a private purchase by a collector from a Jewish art dealer.
The Stern heirs have previously sued The Met and the Goulandris Foundation over this transaction in 2022 in California. However, the court then had stated that it did not fall within its jurisdiction. Now, the Sterns are filing the lawsuit in New York. In it, they also note that The MET should have checked the provenance of the artwork more diligently.
According to a report in The New York Times, The Met holds its position from 2022, when it had stated “that ‘during the Met’s ownership of the painting,’ there had been no record that it belonged to the Stern family, and added, ‘that the information did not become available until several decades after the painting left the museum’s collection’.”
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Painted a year before the Dutch post-impressionist passed away in 1890, the canvas depicts three women in an olive farm picking olives from trees against a lush backdrop.
Representational image (Photo: Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation) 
Representational image (Photo: Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation)
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