{"id":101292,"date":"2023-01-31T17:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=101292"},"modified":"2023-01-25T11:14:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T09:14:04","slug":"19-00-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=101292","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Heirs of Van Gogh Painting With Nazi Past Sue Current Japanese Owners for $750 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Jewish Heirs of Van Gogh Painting With Nazi Past Sue Current Japanese Owners for $750 Million<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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A close-up look at one of Vincent van Gogh\u2019s \u201cSunflowers\u201d paintings. Photo: Sailko via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A Japanese insurance company that owns one of Vincent van Gogh\u2019s famous paintings titled Sunflowers<\/em> is being sued by the descendants of the artwork\u2019s original Jewish owner who claim that the Nazis forced their ancestor to sell the painting in the 1930s, The Art Newspaper<\/a> <\/em>reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three descendants of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy said in a lawsuit filed in Chicago in December that the Tokyo-based Sompo Holdings allegedly knew the artwork was a \u201ccasualty of Nazi policies\u201d when a predecessor of the insurance company \u2014 Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company \u2014 bought the painting for $39.9 million at a Christie\u2019s auction in London in 1987. The painting by the Dutch post-impressionist artist was later moved to the Sompo Museum of Fine Art in Tokyo, where it is currently on permanent display.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was born in Berlin in 1875, was a banker who also had an impressive art collection that included pieces by Pablo Picasso<\/span><\/span>, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet<\/span><\/span> and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933 and it is believed that Sunflowers<\/em> was sold in Berlin in 1934. The Jewish art collector, who also transferred many of his artworks overseas to keep them from being looted by the Nazis, died in May 1935 in Berlin at the age of 59 after reportedly being attacked by a Nazi thug.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of the plaintiffs in the case, Julius H. Schoeps, told The Independent<\/em> he believes his great-uncle sold the paintings to fund his family\u2019s escape from Nazi Germany. In the 98-page complaint filed in court, the family said Mendelssohn-Bartholdy \u201cnever intended to transfer any of his paintings and that he was forced to transfer them only because of threats and economic pressures by the Nazi government.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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They claim Sompo Holdings was \u201crecklessly indifferent\u201d to the painting\u2019s Nazi past, and that the company or its predecessor \u201cignored\u201d the painting\u2019s provenance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The descendants of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy are demanding that Sunflowers<\/em> either be returned to them or that Sompo pay $750 million in punitive damages, The Art Newspaper<\/em> reported.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The insurance film denies claims that it knew the artwork was taken from Mendelssohn-Bartholdy by the Nazis and will fight the lawsuit.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt is a matter of public record that Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company bought the Vincent van Gogh<\/span><\/span> Sunflowers<\/em> work at public auction from Christie\u2019s in London in 1987. For over 35 years, the Sompo Museum of Fine Art in Tokyo, Japan<\/span><\/span>, has proudly displayed Sunflowers<\/em>,\u201d Sompo Holdings said, adding that it \u201ccategorically rejects the complaint\u2019s allegations of wrongdoing, the claims made, and intends to vigorously defend its ownership rights in Sunflowers<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The still life painting is not the only artwork by van Gogh currently at the center of a lawsuit. The heirs of another Jewish collector is suing<\/a> New York City\u2019s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens for the return of van Gogh\u2019s La cueillette des olives (Olive Picking), <\/em>which they claim was looted by the Nazis. The Detroit Institute of Arts is also being sued<\/a> regarding a painting by van Gogh titled Liseuse De Romans. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jewish Heirs of Van Gogh Painting With Nazi Past Sue Current Japanese Owners for $750 Million Shiryn Ghermezian A close-up look at one of Vincent van Gogh\u2019s \u201cSunflowers\u201d paintings. Photo: Sailko via Wikimedia Commons A Japanese insurance company that owns one of Vincent van Gogh\u2019s famous paintings titled Sunflowers is being sued by the descendants of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101292"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101473,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101292\/revisions\/101473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}